Hail and Farewell
by alecsangryface
Summary: TMI Band AU. The Downworld are about to embark on their second European tour ahead of their second album. Rune are on the verge of releasing their debut album. Their paths intertwine somewhere along the way, and with it comes a whole lot of fun. Rated M for eventual smut.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So this is a TMI Band AU that I wanted to write. But I don't know if I'm pleased with it? Let me know what you think anyway. Feedback is always appreciated**

 **Also this is set in England because Radio1 introducing is fire and Americanism are hard af. I also know places in England.**  
~~~~

The whole being in a band thing started just after Clary and Simon joined their little group. Izzy had met the two at school and immediately introduced them to her brothers.

When it was discovered (hardly a month later) than Simon was a bass player and Clary was a great singer, Jace immediately suggested that they start a band. He had wanted to do so with just his brother and sister, but none of them could really sing and play at the same time.

So they did. Simon slotted in easily, the bass bringing another level to their music, and Clary really was the icing on the cake. They sounded great and they had fun while they did it. Though it didn't happen quiet as easily as that.

Alec was not one for strangers. He was not one for other people in fact. It wasn't that he didn't like them, they were nice enough, it was more that he was comfortable with the friends he had and didn't feel like he needed any more.

That line of thinking soon changed when Clary figured out he was gay and didn't tell anyone. It was enough for him to start trusting her at least. With Simon it was different. Alec was coerced into spending time with him when Isabelle started expressing an interest in dating him. The other boy grew on him, much the same way it was with Jace, and they became closer than expected.

Alec reflected on all this as his band mates answered the question of 'how did you meet?' That the person interviewing them had just asked. Thankfully Clary took initiative to just say 'at school' so they didn't have to divulge the information that Alec was a stubborn bastard.

"It's so cliché" Jace moaned. Alec rolled his eyes at his brothers dramatics. This was one of the first interviews they had ever done, and he thanked the Angel every second that his band mates were just a touch more social than he.

"But we're anything but cliché Jace" Clary laughed, poking him in the side and fluttering her eyelashes at him. Jace immediately stopped his drama and smiled down at his girlfriend. She was right. There weren't many bands that could claim three siblings, two couples and a gay person.

The interviewer smile at the couple and was about to ask a question about the relationship until Alec caught their eye and subtly shook his head. He knew Clary and Jace were open about it, but until the entire band and support had a conversation about what they would be revealing about their lives, there would be radio silence. It just made his job harder when Jace couldn't stop making gooey eyes at his girlfriend.

"So what music are you listening to at the minute?" They quickly recovered from Alec's cold glare. That apparently didn't stop them from calling on Alec first. "Alec?"

"I'm listening to The Downworld a lot at the minute" Alec began slowly, he was bad at interviews, it was a miracle that he had gotten this far.

"That's only because you think Magnus Bane is, what was the exact phrase? -" Jace began,

"'The sexiest man alive, he makes me want to die', I think was the phrase" Izzy finished, causing the four of them to burst into laughter. Alec's eyes flashed dangerously, he would be having very serious words with them after this was over. He tongued the piercing in his lip, thinking over his next words.

"Yes but they also make great music so" He sassed back. He effectively just confirmed his gayness to the world, he thought he should have a more dramatic feeling than indifference but he didn't let it bother him. It was after all one less thing journalists could use to sell magazines.

^•^•^•^•

Magnus had his feet on the wall and his head dangling off the edge of the sofa. He was beyond bored. It didn't take much for him to become bored, but waiting around for Catarina to pick him up was enough to drive him crazy.

He sighed as he tapped on the Twitter app. At least social media could keep him from the boredom for a couple of minutes.

He scrolled through pages of pointless promotion tweets, occasionally favouriting a selfie. It was when he decided to go through his mentions that he knew he was on the verge of sleep.

' MagnusBane is so hot!' Was a common occupancy throughout. He rolled his eyes at the painful attempts at being noticed. All Magnus wanted was for some creativity.

He favourited some tweets that mentioned The Downworld saving people's lives, smiling to himself as he did so. But it wasn't until one tweet that he paused.

' AlecLightwood knows what he's on about. MagnusBane is beautiful! #OTP' then there was a video attached, it was titled "Getting To Know - Rune" and the little screen cap showed a group of five, all with various tattoos and piercings, with their arms around each other and posing for a photo.

Some part of him was curious. So he clicked on the video, and scrolled through the comments as the thirty second unskippable ad played. Most of them mentioned how hot one of the band members were, mostly to Jace and Isabelle.

As the video started, Magnus noticed that the band was very very good looking. Even sat on bails of hay, the five managed to look like alternative editorial models.

As the video went on Magnus found it hard to drag his eyes away from the drummer, Alec. He was tall from the looks of things, with deep black hair and bright blue eyes, as well as tattoos all over both arms. They wove around his muscles and dove into the collar of his shirt, peaking out at oversized, low hanging arms holes of his tank shirt.

In short, Magnus thought he was gorgeous. It was strange. He was never really attracted to drummers. He much preferred a guitarist.

Once the video had finished, and he was feeling a little smug at having a very hot, very gay boy comment on his sexiness, he searched for their music.

There wasn't much of it. The band only had an EP out and a couple of single records but what HQ music they had put out was good. A lot of the videos were snippets of their live shows. It was clear that Clary, Jace, Isabelle and Simon loved to put on a show for people. Magnus was just a little bit disappointed that he couldn't see Alec on the videos. Just a little bit.

It was when he was bemoaning this fact when Catarina let herself into the apartment. She wrinkled her nose at the messiness of the place and made a beeline for the couch.

"Hey Cat?" Magnus asked "Have we found an opener for the tour?"

"Not yet. We're supposed to be talking about it at the meeting" She replied and held her hands out to help Magnus from his rather uncomfortable position.

"Great" Magnus smirked, he loved it when all his ideas came together.

•^•^

"We want your input on who you would like to open for you" Katherine was saying, she was leaning back in her chair, the picture of casual, twirling a pen in her hand. She motioned for Raphael "We have a couple of bands that we thought you might like but if you have other suggestions then we can discuss it"

Raphael glared at the four of them for a couple of seconds before he pulled a page open on his iPad.

"I want Rune" Magnus exclaimed when he saw a picture of the band and their name in swirling letters on the screen.

"They don't look like they'd fit our niche Magnus" Ragnor told him, he was eyeing the picture and the more outrageous tattoos on them. It might have been impossible but he looked greener than usual.

"Well Eternal Damnation is all about the dichotomy of good and evil" Magnus replied. He smiled when Malcolm gave an appreciate ah sound, "besides I like their stuff"

"When have you ever listened to them?" Catarina asked, she couldn't remember the last time Magnus listened to something that wasn't techno.

"This morning. I promise they're really good. They're actually really like us, a bit indie, a bit techno. Drop dead gorgeous" Magnus pulled his phone out, letting them mull over his opinion.

He loaded up their webpage, and went to the tour page to show everyone else.

"Look it you're really not sure, they have a show at the end of the week at the barfly. There's still tickets left" Magnus waved his phone around.

"Fine. But Kat and Raphael have to come too. And you're not draw attention to us" Ragnor grumbled. Magnus clapped happily, Malcolm joining him. Magnus really loved Malcolm, he was always happy and childlike. It was a great relief from Raphael and Ragnor's moodiness.

"I don't mind. It's been a while since we've all gone out together" Katherine was leaning forward in her chair now, she turned to Raphael "yes we're going. Obviously there are rules"

"No drinking. No going home with randos. No drawing attention to yourself." Raphael ground out "and no talking to the band. We'll deal with that" he ran a hand down his face with a deep sigh. With any luck he would be allowed to let go a bit and not have to look after Magnus all night.

"And Magnus is paying" Catarina told him, standing up to pat him on the head.

"You say that like it's not six quid a ticket" Magnus laughed, immediately pulling up the booking page on his phone. He missed seeing new bands that didn't break his bank account to pay for tickets. Even though it was almost impossible to break his bank account now.

"It's settled then." Katherine said, gathering her papers up "we'll see this band and then decide afterwards if we want them to open for us"

There was a chorus of yes and yep. Kat nodded and ticked off one item off her to do list and added another to the end. She loved it when they meet and actually managed to get past one item on her to do list.

"Ok then, next on the list-"

 **A/N: Please let me know what you think, or if there is something you would like to see in this.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So this is the heads up that I don't live in London, I'm from Nottingham myself.**

 **I would also like to say that the response to the first chapter of this was incredible! To all who read, liked and reblogged I cannot thank you enough. I was so so happy reading what everyone thought about this so thank you again!**

Small intimate venues were incredible, at least that's what Alec thought. Playing at the Barfly in London had been his dream since they started Rune. It wasn't a big dream, the place only just fit 200 people and it was all standing. But to Alec it was the most magical thing.

He reflected on all the times he had gone to gigs at the Barfly over the years. Some with Izzy and Jace, then later with Clary and Simon. Most of the time he would go alone, not because no one else would go with him but rather because there was something so personal about small gigs that he didn't like to share the time with other people.

Although, there had been some pretty terrible shows he had gone to without anyone with him. Those were the worst. It was when he was trying to set up his drum kit, and the peddle was just not cooperating that he thought of those times. He hoped that they wouldn't be one of those concerts.

"Alec! Get fucking finished" Jace shouted across the room, he had finished setting up a while ago; only having to plug his keyboard in and set up Clary's synthesiser. "We're gonna have pre-drinks!"

"It's fucking half three in the afternoon!" Alec shouted back, shuffling happily when he finally got his pedal to connect.

"Yeah so by eight we'll be sober!" Jace shouted back. They really shouldn't have been shouting, there was one other person in the room which was the employee who was tasked with restocking the bar, and it wasn't like the room was very big either.

"You should at least come for the food we'll be having with drinks Alec" Clary said as she appeared out of the backstage area. It reality the 'backstage area' was a small room no bigger than a storage room with two beaten up leather sofas and a stained coffee table forced into it.

"I will. I'll catch up, I have to finish setting this up" Alec gestured to the partially assembled drum kit and the other parts laid around him.

"Just think" Simon said, also appearing out of nowhere "when we're famous you'll never have to do this again" he was wistfully thinking about all the free time he would have when they wouldn't have to load all their kit up into a van, take turns driving, and set up their own stuff.

"That's a long way off yet, Si" Clary patted him on the shoulder, then grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards where Izzy and Jace were stood talking, Izzy gesturing wildly and her mouth moving at a mile a minute. Jace listened fondly, used to his adopted sisters antics.

Alec smiled as he watched their retreating backs. If someone had told him five years ago that this is what he would be doing with his life, he would have (kindly) told them to fuck off. He was completely ready to start his life going off to his dream uni and studying law. Then the band happened and he had honestly never been happier.

He would have be happy doing law, really happy; especially because he was planning on going into Environmental Law. But spending days writing music and lyrics with his best friends, and performing with his best friends filled him with a happiness that was unlike any other.

Alec shook his head to dislodge the thoughts. There wasn't time for him to get sappy if he actually wanted to finish setting up and get food. So he continued to piece together his kit, quietly humming to himself and working quicker than usual.

It was a short time later when he finished. Alec made quick work of gathering his jacket, phone and wallet up so he could meet the others.

Alec pulled his jacket tighter around himself as he stepped out into the brisk London air and quickly sent a text to Izzy asking where they were.

Immediately he got a text back saying they were at The Engineer. Alec smiled, it was a favourite of theirs; a cute little gastropub with food from all over the world and a beer garden. It made for great scenery in the summer when the sun was setting and you had a cold beer in your hand. It was always Alec's favourite time of the year.

Five minutes later when he entered the pub he went straight to the bar to order a pint of whatever was on tap. He sipped the foam as his eyes raked the room for where his band was. Spotting them tucked away into a back corner, he made his way over, also noting that his parents had joined them.

"Hey. Where's Max?" Alec asked, as he pulled his chair out to sit between Simon and Jace, knowing that if Jace planned on getting a little tipsy there would be arguments unless he sat there.

"He's with Jocelyn" Maryse replied smiling fondly at her son. Jocelyn was Clary's mother, she loved Max. He was always asking her about art and drawing. Eventually Jocelyn offered to teach the young boy how to draw and paint. Max was over the moon. He dreamed about drawing for manga or animating for cartoons.

"Mum says he's doing really well!" Clary said, cutting off the conversation her and Isabelle were having about their wardrobe for the gig that night.

Robert coughed and pointedly looked at the menu sat in front of Alec. He rolled his eyes at his dad. Sometimes he took the 'I'm looking after the band' act a little bit too seriously.

When the elder Lightwood children, Clary and Simon expressed the desire to start playing shows, the Lightwood parents were more than happy to take up the administrative work. Robert and Maryse already owned a Management and Publicity firm, and had plenty of experience dealing with bands already.

Robert was responsible for dealing with venues, record labels anything that was to do with the career he sorted it.

Maryse was all about the people. It was something that she and her children especially loved. Before Rune became a concept Maryse was unfortunately always working. Being a part of Rune's support was a way for her to spend time with her children doing something they all loved.

"Have you guys ordered?" Alec asked, flicking the menu open to vegetarian options and taking a long swig from his larger.

"We were waiting for you, Alec" Simon said, having already gathered the rest of the menus in front of him and was fiddling with the corner of one; clearly more than ready for food.

"Sorry, Si" Alec laughed at his slightly put out tone. He quickly decided that he would have vegetarian lasagna and handed his menu to Simon, who immediately signalled to their waiter that they were finally ready to order.

The food arrived relatively quickly considering it was about to pick up for the evening. Conversation was also quick. It ranged from set list to wardrobe, to the admittedly terrible band the venue had booked go open for them.

By the time they were finished it was almost five o clock and time for them to part ways to run any errands. This usually meant Maryse and Robert would make quick exits to continue working, and the band would head out to somewhere quiet to light up a couple of cigarettes and drink.

Izzy always commented that their pre-game was one of her favourite things about being in Rune. Apparently there was something about sitting in silence with her favourite people, passing a cigarette around that got her buzzed. Like the calm before the storm, they were perched at the top of a rollercoaster ready to begin their decline and then the adrenaline hit. Of course it couldn't compare to the rush that they got on stage. Few things could.

^•^•^

"Magnus! I swear if you are not dressed in the next five minutes we're going without you!" Ragnor shouted at his friend from where he was sat on his sofa. He, Cat, Malcolm, Raphael and Kat had been sat waiting around Magnus' apartment for half an hour. It had been twenty minutes since they were meant to leave, and the last time they had seen Magnus he had half his makeup done and his trousers on.

"Yes my little green pea" Magnus appeared from the bathroom, attempting to fasten an earring without the help of a mirror. Once he was sure it was in, he did a little twirl showing of his outfit. "On a scale of 1 - 10. How good do I look?"

"Bout a 2" Raphael told him, not even looking up from his phone to cheek. It was very likely that Raphael was engaged in some sort of email battle with someone about something to down with The Downworld tour. In fact, it was certain. It seemed that was all he did.

Ragnor leaned over his shoulder to see what it was that was making his boyfriend so irritated. Seeing what it was, he settled a hand onto the younger man's thigh; silently telling him to calm down. Raphael did look up then, his eyes smiling his thanks.

Magnus laughed at the comment, and replied, "No, silly. The right answer is obviously ten" Malcolm laughed at that, nodding his head.

"You always look fantastic Magnus!" Malcolm told him, fondness dancing in his eyes and across his slightly smiling lips. However, his eyes flickered over to Catarina and turned softer, infinitely more open.

Magnus clocked the look, resolving to talk to him about it later. Malcolm was without a doubt in the world the nicest person he had ever met. It was a shame that the fans didn't recognise that Malcolm was the best out of them.

"Are we ready to go then?" Katherine asked, standing up and smoothing her skinny black jeans down. She was wearing all black, and had her hair up in a messy bun. She was the picture of a indie concert goer. It was hard to imagine that she finished school early and was one of the most successful band publicists in the whole of the U.K. The Downworld attributed a lot their success to her.

"Yes. Finally." Catarina stood also smoothing her navy blue dress down. Cat's style was reserved but beautiful. Completely polished and elegant. She led the way to the door, grabbing her jacket off the rack as she went.

The rest followed her, Magnus flicking off lights as he went, and picking his wallet and keys up. He was starting to feel the excitement that came with going to small concerts. It was a shame that they couldn't start queuing up like everyone else, having to sneak in and remain unnoticed. But the excitement was very much still there.

The six walked and chatted, mainly roasting Magnus for his extravagant look. They agreed on subtle, but the thing with Magnus was that he couldn't do subtle. He didn't mind, and neither did his friends really. They had that level of friendship where they could have banter that to anyone else would sound like bullying.

"So how did you come to know about Rune, Mags?" Katherine asked, she had been curious, but also had a fairly certain idea about how.

"Twitter. Some girl tagged me in a video of them" Magnus replied, Katherine smirked; she was right then, having seen the video in question. "The drummer claimed I was the hottest person in the world, it made him want to die. Or at least his siblings said that he said that."

"Of course" Cat groaned, "you are so vain"

"You know I don't think he minds" Raphael droned, he had known Magnus the longest out of the rest of the and was very used to his vanity. It made him smile, although he would have to be at gun point to admit it.

After that they walked in relative silence. Splitting off into twos to chat quietly, Katherine and Magnus making a pact to figure out what it was that was going on between Catarina and Malcolm. They bumped arms way too much to be normal.

"Ah the Barfly" Ragnor sighed, "how I have missed thee" it was no secret that Ragnor preferred the small gigs. It was more intimate, and a lot less hectic. He could appreciate it.

"Come on" Raphael tugged his hand, "you can continue your love affair with a building at a later date"

 **A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this one. I had fun writing it! Let me know what you think of it :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Happy Holidays everyone! I hope everyone likes this chapter, I think the ending is a bit rushed but I'm happy with it! As always let me know what you think and thanks to those who did so on the last chapter :)**  
~~~~~~~~

So the openers were bad. Their wailing about their horrid ex girlfriends were not winning them any points, and the lead singers gross statement about same-sex marriage certainly didn't help their case… Alec had to be held back to stop him going out on stage and punching the guy sock on the jaw. Jace almost let him.

They approached the stage, amidst the screaming of the indie scene. Alec had to admit he enjoyed the fact that he could hide behind his drum kit for most of the night. The others were so much better at interacting with the crowd. The banter they had in between songs kept the mood light, but when they were playing it was serious and sexy fun.

However, at about the half way point of their set, the wiring had to be changed for everything except the drums. Which led to where Alec was now. Vamping.

"So sorry about this guys" He started off with. There was muttering in the back of the crowd, who couldn't see what was going on. "It seems like the old ass cables we were using finally decided to pack in. Can't say I'm surprised, I've been telling them we should replace them for months" There was a shared laugh throughout the crowd.

Alec was pretty sure he looked like shit as he always did after he had been playing for a little while, but it didn't stop him from running his free hand through his hair in an attempt to fix it. He noted that he needed to get it cut soon, his sides were starting to get too long and the long top was starting to get messy. He thanked everything that was holy for the invention of hair buns for everyday wear.

"You know what I'm gonna level with you here" He continued, "I fucking hate this. Not the gigging. Love that. But the having to talk to a crowd thing. Honestly there was a reason I started playing the drums." Alec smiled when that got a laugh, which was good. Some times people hated his snarky deadpan attitude but he literally couldn't help it.

"I'm also gonna address the elephant in the room" He looked out at the crowd, near to the back where the openers were stood watching them. "Brandon. What the fuck bro?"

Izzy laughed loudly into the mic she had just got working again, her guitar secured firmly over her chest. They were just waiting for Jace to hook his keyboard back up.

"You know I'm gay right?" Brandon was stood watching the scene in horror. He must not have realised. "I mean I totally hate the idea of marriage, but that's besides the point. All these wonderful people" Alec gestured to the crowd, flashing a smile and a wink at a particularly cute boy near the front, "came to see us play. Probably knowing and being ok with that fact"

"And then you made them suffer through your homophobic ass comments and your shitty singing." Clary was giggling behind him, ready to tell him that they were finished, but thought it better to let Alec get in out, "do you really hate people that much?"

"Ok!" Jace pounced on the older boy, pulling the microphone out of his hand, "that's enough of that. We can finish the set now" it wasn't often that Jace had to stop Alec, but when it came to homophobic comments he knew he had to put his sensible head on. That didn't mean he enjoyed it however. He was more than content to watch Alec let lose on someone. It was rather entertaining.

Alec laughed and headed back to his drum kit, shaking his hair free of the shape it had been haphazardly balanced in. Once he was settled he immediately got to tapping out a rhythm to start the next song.

He liked to listen to Clary sing. Her voice was light and airy but held a certain kind of punch to it to make it sound like she wasn't a child. He smiled as he watched her rocked her body and roll her head around as she sang and hit buttons on the tiny synth in front of her. When her performance (because it really was a performance) was coupled with the rhythmic, in sync bopping of Jace, Izzy and Simon, you could imagine they were telepathically connected.

^•^•^

"Thank you all for coming out tonight" Clary laughed, the glee she felt from singing the song before evident in her voice. "So this last one is called Parabatai, it's from our upcoming debut album Ave Atque Vale. We hope you love it as much as we do"

Jace and Alec wrote the song. They had spent all day sat on the floor of Alec's bedroom talking and occasionally writing down bits of lyrics and music. The lyrics came as easily as breathing, but it was Clary and Simon who really took off with the music. Alec and Jace were alright with what they had, but when they gave it to the other three it barely took half an hour to make it the perfect song.

Once the song was over, the five of them panting and beaming, sweat dripping on their faces, Clary informed the crowd that they were going backstage for two minutes then they would be out for photos and whatnot.

"That was bloody fantastic!" Simon shouted as he collapsed into the soft leather of the old battered sofa. Isabelle settled herself into his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him passionately.

"I hate you all" Alec groaned, pulling a black beanie over his messy hair so that only his slight coif was poking out, as he saw that Clary and Jace were in much the same position. "Why must you flaunt your straight love in front of me!"

"It's not our fault you chose not to look for love Alec" Izzy was gasping as Simon nibbled on the skin at her collar bone.

"Ok that's enough!" Alec stood very quickly, covering his eyes and almost tripping over his feet in the process. "Let's go see these people so we can get wankered"

"Always with the alcohol brother" Jace laughed, letting his hand run over Clary's bum as she stood. She shot him a flirty wink and sauntered to the door, ever the picture of perfection. Isabelle was the same.

"Just sort yourself out, Jace" Isabelle rolled her eyes. She checked the state of her bright crimson nail polish as she spoke "You look a fucking mess"

"Don't be rude Iz" Clary laughed, clearly meaning the opposite. They all thought it was good that they gave Jace a reality check every now and again.

^•^•^•^

Meanwhile, Magnus was bouncing on his toes and smiling brightly at his companions. The YouTube videos really did not do Rune justice, and they were funny. Magnus had also never been so glad for broken wiring. Alec vamping was something that he enjoyed. Maybe too much. The swearing was hot. Like it did things to his body temperature hot.

"Do not approach the band yourself" Katherine was telling them. They hung back in a darkened corner of the floor, in the hopes that no one would see them. So far it had worked, the rest of the crowd too concerned with meeting the people they came to see play to notice. "We'll wait until everyone else is gone. Then and only then I will talk to them."

"Obviously only if we decide we want them to open for us" Raphael finished off for her. Although the two had only really been working together for two years. They were so in sync it was sometimes a little bit scary.

"I really liked them!" Malcolm said, he thought they were just the kind of band they needed. The same as them but completely different. He also saw the way Magnus was looking at Alec and he thought it was about time for his friend to get laid after the disaster that was his last relationship.

"Honestly I think the same. It helps that the keyboard player is hot" Ragnor said completely serious. Raphael glared at his boyfriend, he knew that he didn't like it when he commented on other peoples attractiveness. "You know you're the only one for me, Raph. My eternal love"

"Third album title!" Magnus crowed, just as Catarina 'awed', and told Ragnor how sweet that was.

"Shut up Ragnor" Raphael allowed himself to be pulled into the taller man's side, but maintained the stoic angry face. "So it is decided then? Ask Rune to open?"

The four band members made eye contact, a silent conversation flowing between them. Then nodded in unison.

"Wonderful!" Katherine clapped her fingers together. "So you five have to go and wait outside. I will not have your presence influence them"

Raphael used his no nonsense glare on Magnus when he started grumbling about not being able to see the hotness up close. Eventually they slipped out of the door unnoticed.

Katherine ended up having to wait half and hour for Rune to be finished with their fans. She smiled as she watched them take various photo's of them throwing peace signs, or pulling the most ridiculous pouting faces.

"Hi!" She bounced up to the band when it was just the five of them plus her left in the room.

"Hey. Did you want a photo or?" Clary asked happily, her eyes wandering to see who was with Katherine.

"Ah I fall under the or category" She smiled at their bemused looks, "do you have a manager, or publicist or do you do it yourself?"

"We have both" Jace said carefully, evidently unsure of the small woman stood in front of them.

"Brilliant. Are they here?" Katherine started looking around the room for other people, only noticing the bartender was still there and wiping down the mahogany bar, tiredness painted all over their face. "I would like to talk business"

Simon immediately stepped forward and offered his hand to her, "I'm Simon, and they're in the dressing room. Follow me" he started off in the direction of backstage, leaving the rest to follow him. Katherine followed without any hesitation. The others were stood dumbfounded for a couple of seconds.

"Robert and Maryse Lightwood, this is-" Simon paused his speech as everyone else filtered into the room, "I didn't actually get your name"

"It's alright" Katherine pulled a business card out of one of her pockets and handed it to Maryse "Katherine Rose. I work in band publicity" she paused, "I think you should probably all sit down"

There was a scramble for the four remaining seat, which ended in Alec sitting on the floor complaining about the immorality of it all.

"So in short. I am currently working as a publicist for The Downworld" Jace smirked as Alec stiffened. Simon, Isabelle and Clary were fighting laughter at their friend back. Robert and Maryse were the perfect picture of business as always.

"They wanted to ask you if you want to open for them on their European tour" Katherine held up a hand before anyone could start talking over her, "Obviously you don't have to decide tonight, you can have a few days but we do like to get into rehearsal early before tour so I would ask that you make your decision soon"

Maryse glanced at her children's faces, double taking at the barely contained laughter in four out of five of them. Robert silently rolled his eyes at them, used to their inside jokes.

"How did they know about us?" Isabelle asked, her foot may have nugged Alec in the back.

"Their manager and myself had already decided that you would make a good fit" Katherine made sure to make eye contact with each of them, but settled on the drummer before she continued "Magnus apparently already knew about you. Said he watched a T in the Park interview"

"Oh my god" Alec buried his head into his folded arms that settled on his bent knees.

"What did he think?" Simon asked, leaning forward in his seat and completely ignoring the crisis that his friend was having.

"He said that anyone that thought he was the sexiest man alive got his vote" That's when the bubbling laughter couldn't be suppressed any longer. Alec blushed and tried to push his face further into his arms. Their parents looked on in confusion.

"Don't worry I think he returns the sentiments, but you didn't hear that from me" Katherine said as she adjusted her jacket, and made for the door. Alec's head whipped up to stare at her, a smirk forming on his lips but the blush still present on his face.

"Please. Think about our offer, call me" she pointed to the card still in Maryse's hand, "Then we'll figure the rest out. Soon"

Katherine slipped out the door to a back drop of laughter and the sounds of the Lightwood parents asking what the hell was going on and she smiled. She had a good feeling about this one.

 **A/N: Hope you enjoyed this one! Let me know what you think if you like :) I hope you all have a fun and safe holidays! xox**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you so so much for all the follows and favourites on this story! It honestly means the world to me. So I'm going to dedicate this chapter to all the people that sent in lovely reviews. I was in shock at how nice everyone was being.**

 **Happy New Year everyone. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

~~~~  
Alec was sat in the bath (fully clothed), purely because he was the tallest and if he sat anywhere else there wouldn't be room for the other. Clary had her legs crossed as she sat on the closed lid of the toilet. Jace, Isabelle and Simon had squeezed themselves in the remaining floor space, like a human version of Tetris. The current topic of conversation was touring with The Downworld.

"I think we should do it" Isabelle said as she puffed a heap of smoke past her lips, then passing the cigarette to Simon.

"Sure" Simon sucked in a breath, closing his eyes in bliss as the smoke filled his desperate lungs "We'd be world famous overnight"

"But do we want that?" Alec sipped the cup of tea he had, one of his arms lolling over the side of the bath to twirl Jace's hair around one of his fingers. "World fame?"

"Yes" Jace's eyes were shining, he looked giddy like a small child in a sweet shop. "Why wouldn't we?"

"I don't know. Trying to be the voice of reason" Alec replied, his hand stilling as the five of them went quiet, reflective.

Clary stood up on the toilet lid and leant over to where their record player was on the worktop. She flicked through the box of records until she found an old trance music record and flipped it onto the player, then settled back into position.

"We should do it at least for the travel" She plucked the cigarette from Simon's fingers and took her own drag, "how many times have we been outside of England? Twice?"

"You make a good point there" Alec was eyeing the quickly deteriorating fag, he hadn't even had a drag yet; Jace stealing it before he could even light it. "You gonna save me some of that?"

"Don't think so, you were quitting last week" Clary flashed a grin at him and blew the smoke out of her nostrils.

There was a knock on the door, none of them made to move. It was the third time that it had happened in the last half hour.

"Are you five going to come out?" Robert was leaning against the door, trying to get it to open but Jace was firmly placed in front of it.

"Band meeting" they chorused, although Alec did stand up to open the window so some of the smoke would start to drift out.

"You have plenty of other rooms to do it in!" Came the agitated reply.

"We enjoy the closeness, Mr Lightwood" Simon called back "It brings us closer together" the five snickered at Simon's words, they were both literally and figuratively true.

"Well hurry up. Some of us need to use the bathroom for actual bathroom purposes, and not smoking the place out" Maryse called, she must have joined Robert soon after he started.

"Yeah one minute, Mum" Alec called, rolling his eyes and making a 'let's wrap this up' gesture to the others "we just have to make a decision"

They waited until they heard the sound of two pairs of feet walking away before any of them started talking again.

"So we vote?" Izzy asked, not bothering to stop for them to agree to a vote. They always did, "Who thinks we should go on this tour?"

Jace, Isabelle, Clary and Simon all raised their hands they turned to stare at their drummer until he raised his too. They wouldn't do anything without a unanimous vote. Which defeated the purpose of the vote, something Alec made sure to remind them of every time.

"Just think, Alec" Isabelle said as they were all walking out of the bathroom ready to go their separate ways for an hour before they went to the gym, "You may be able to sleep with Magnus Bane yet"

Alec smirked, the blush on his cheeks being the only thing betraying his embarrassment, "Oh I plan to"

^•^•^

Magnus found that when The Downworld wasn't touring he didn't have much to do.

Touring meant constant interaction with other people, something that his extroverted self craved, and the sitting around he was required to do was for something. Now that they weren't on tour Magnus was going through his day to day life in a constant state of boredom.

He enjoyed the time they spent working on their second album. Writing lyrics was always fun and recording was a laugh. But he sometimes felt as if the others had a few more people to care about them.

Magnus was happy enough being single, but sometimes he just felt lonely. Desperate for contact like his friends had. Even Catarina and Malcolm had been getting closer. He was jealous.

A stupid jingling sound emitted from his laptop that had been sitting open to a blank webpage for half an hour as Magnus contemplated his life, signalling that he was getting a Skype call.

Magnus adjusted his hair as best he could with the limited darkness of his computer screen, then hit the accept button. Already preparing himself for something bad.

"Wonderful, Magnus!" Katherine's smiling pixilated face shone out at him from the screen, "now that we're all here. I have some news"

Raphael's face disappeared from view behind Ragnor, presumably because he already knew what she was going to say and was not the least bit interested.

"I got a call of Maryse and Robert Lightwood today" The Downworld members just stared back at her as if to say 'I have no clue who you're on about'

"They work for Rune" an exasperated sigh. There were nods in acknowledgement.

"Well they agreed to come on tour with you guys" more nods, and excited/mischievous smile from Magnus, "I proposed that we meet next weekend. To plan sets, ideas ecetera"

Raphael popped back into screen, "we can do four o'clock Saturday afternoon. I have us booked for promo and recording sessions around that." He was furiously typing away at his phone still, not even looking at his planner. He knew it like the back of his hand now.

Ragnor gently pulled the phone from his fingers and set it down on the coffee table next to them with a small shake of the head. Sometimes he really wished his boyfriend would take a break.

"I can go four. Five would be better" Katherine mumbled thoughtfully,

"Come to think of it" Raphael was mentally recounting the day's events "If we make it half five we can do it over dinner?"

Katherine's eyes shone, "yes! That'd be wonderful" she focused on her band now "Half five on Saturday good for you guys?"

"Yeah should be fine" Malcolm said, "just make sure it's somewhere we won't get mobbed please" he shuddered thinking about the last time they had gone to dinner together. Maybe Chiquito's wasn't the best place for them, but damn if it wasn't some of the best Mexican he'd ever had. That being said he hadn't eaten much Mexican food in his short life time.

"We'll be there. Magnus is diving" Catarina said, causing Magnus to double take. It wasn't even his turn, it was Malcolm's! "Purely precaution so he doesn't drink"

"There's just no trust!" Magnus squawked, the others laughing. He didn't get exponentially drunk every time they went out, just tipsy enough so that he lost control of his tongue. Not something they would want when they're trying to convince others that they are good business partners.

^•^•^

Simon's back hit the mat with a thud. Isabelle was stood over him, the picture of beauty as she panted from how difficult it was becoming for her to wrestle her boyfriend to the ground.

"What are you two fighting about now?" Jace asked, watching the two while also spotting Clary who was doing weighted squats.

"Simon thinks I can't look after myself" Isabelle seethed.

This had become routine for the band almost immediately after its conception. Robert and Maryse had gotten their rather large garden shed convert to a gym when Alec was about 14, they both claimed that if the gym was closer to home they were more likely to do exercise. However it was not long until their children had taken it over.

Despite how large the room was it was practically bare. There was two treadmills, a rack of weights and a matted floor. The matted floor was the most important though. Doing gymnastics and mixed martial arts since they were children meant the Lightwood children needed somewhere to keep the routine up.

Clary and Simon joined in almost immediately. They were so excited to learn, and could hold their own well enough against the other three.

Alec barely slowed down where he was on the treadmill when he spoke, "he's got a point though"

"Fuck off, Alec!" Izzy turned her baleful glare on her brother, her chest still heaving, "No one asked for your opinion"

"Well Izzy you can't cook, you hardly ever clean up after yourself, what do you want me to say" Alec shrugged, an awkward gesture when jogging.

"I know that!" Izzy screamed, her face was red and tears were forming in her eyes "but I can look after myself!"

Simon had stood up by this time and placed a hand on his girlfriends shoulder, "I know you can, Iz. I just worry about you"

Izzy turned to face him, ready to start yelling again but seeing the hurt and worried look on Simon's face stopped her.

"I love you so much Iz" Simon held her chin in his fingers, his touch so tender and barely there "So much, I don't want to see you get hurt"

"I love you too"

Then Isabelle was kissing him, her arms wound around his neck pulling him down to her slightly. Simon's hands went to the small of her back as if he was trying to pull her inside of him, desperate for her to be closer.

Clary rolled her eyes, shooting a look to her boyfriend. The other three were so used to the way that Isabelle and Simon were with each other.

The whole point of the five of them doing gym time together was to help them get their frustrations out on each other. It probably wasn't healthy, but it worked.

It started when Alec and Jace fell out about something arbitrary and didn't speak to each other for two weeks. The tension was unbearable until they ended beating each other up so that they had black eyes and busted lips for a couple of weeks, then everything was fine.

"Please stop throwing your relationship in our face" Alec stopped the treadmill and collapsed over the controls, his arms hanging limply over the safety bars "some of us are still single you know"

Izzy broke away from Simon to glare at her brother, "You're in such a bad mode lately! When was the last time you had sex?"

Now if this conversation had taken place three years ago, Alec would have blushed, stuttered and make excuses to leave. Nowadays he just rolled his eyes, used to the prying nature of his family.

"Too fucking long" he moaned.

"Well here's to getting Alec laid while we're on tour" Jace mock toasted, they had told Maryse and Robert their decision to accept The Downworld's offer who immediately ushered their children out of their shared office space to make the necessary calls, "may the lucky guy be gorgeous and a needy bottom"

"Fuck off Jace" Alec did blush at that, but didn't bother to correct him; he was mostly right. He hopped off the treadmill and stretched, "I think I'm going go have a nap"

Maryse poked her head through the door before anyone could respond to Alec's statement.

"Half five on Saturday with The Downworld to discuss things. It's over dinner. You guys better be on your best behaviour" She directed that last comment to Jace more than anyone, who just smiled angelically. It was great that Maryse did her job but was still their mother first. They kept out of trouble that way. Or at least some of the time they did.

 **A/N: Let me know what y'all thought. Love you!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: The response to this fic has been fantastic! Y'all are so lovely it makes me cry, honestly. So here's the next one! This one is jumpy and a bit meh but our faves finally meet.**

 **I hope you enjoy it, let me know!**

"You know I think I hate suits" Simon said as he tugged at the collar of his stark white dress shirt. He was wearing a fitted black suit jacket with it. The stretcher in his right ear was a bright red as the only bit of colour in his outfit.

"You look really hot though Si" Izzy said, placing her hand on his arm. She had a tight black mid thigh length dress. She looked sexy for lack of a better word.

Clary was the only one wearing any noticeable colour. Her own black dress had a purple panel that had black lace over it going down the middle. Jace was also wearing a black suit except his shirt was also black. They both looked angelic but still sexy.

Alec was wearing a deep navy blue almost black skinny suit. He looked better than he usually did. His shirt was white, with the top few buttons undone to show off his tattoos.

"Can we go already?" Alec asked "I want to get this over with"

"Lighten up Alec! This is gonna be fun!" Jace told him, rolling his eyes and adjusting his hair in the mirror.

"Jace. We've known each other for at least ten years" Alec explained slowly, "When have I ever enjoyed meeting new people"

Jace looked like he was going to argue, but thought better of it when Clary shot him a glare. Alec smiled thankfully at her. He was in no mood to argue.

"Über's here!" Robert called up the stairs at them. Simon dragged Izzy out without getting her bag, so Alec picked it up along with his wallet and phone. Clary and Jace followed at a much more normal pace.

"Thanks Alec" Izzy commented as he gave her her bag. She quickly walked over to where their mother and Max were talking and pressed a kiss to the young boys head, whispering 'behave' to him.

Alec followed suit and patted him on the head, then walked out into the harsh afternoon light of a typical September day. He nodded politely to the driver and got into the car, noticing that there was thankfully enough leg room for him.

As the rest of their group filtered in, Alec let himself relax back into his seat. Sure he was excited that they might be on the verge of his big break, but he was not excited for the amount of people that had to be around for them to discuss it. Plus there was the mutual attraction with Magnus that he had to deal with. That wasn't embarrassing at all.

Alec sighed, closed his eyes and leant his head against the headrest; resigning himself to the permanent blush on his face.

^•^•^

Magnus sat down at the table admiring the delicate artwork on the walls of their private room. Sometimes he hated being famous, but things like this made him realise that there were some perks.

"So" Katherine had her elbows on the table and was resting her chin on the backs of her hands, "Magnus. How are you?"

"What do you mean?" He replied, she was being weird and he was suspicious.

"Oh you know. How are you? How are you feeling?" She blinked at him like he was the one being weird.

"I'm good?" Magnus glanced around the table at the others there, they looked just as interested in him and Katherine was.

Kat opened her mouth to reply but quickly closed it and turned it into a smile when she recognised the people coming through the door. She stood to great them.

"Maryse. Robert" Katherine held out her hand and pressed kisses to the two's cheeks, "how are you?"

"Wonderful thank you" Maryse was meeting her smile with just as much enthusiasm, she motioned to the five people behind her, "This is Jonathan-"

"Jace" Maryse shot him her best 'I'm your mother stop being rude' look.

"-Clarissa"

"Clary"

"Isabelle"

"Izzy"

"Simon and Alexander" She was barely containing a lecture about not interrupting, while Robert was chuckling quietly to himself. Maryse glanced back at Alec and sighed at him, "Are you going to come in or are you going lean against the door frame all night"

Alec raised his eyebrows and looked into the room they had just come from, checking where the exist were mainly. Then he turned back a shrugged,

"It's very likely that I'll move to have a fag at some point"

Maryse closed her eyes and counted to ten. Why he had to make this harder was beyond her. She loved her job, but her children were pains sometimes.

"Alec" Robert glanced at him, it wasn't often than Alec was the problem child. In fact it was never, "sit down"

Alec rolled his eyes and strode further into the room, making sure to sit in a seat that was placed firmly in the middle of his family… And if it was directly opposite Magnus he wasn't going to complain.

"I must say, it is very nice to meet you all" Magnus began once everyone was seated, his eyes never leaving Alec, "finally"

There were murmured agreements, Simon barely containing his inner glee. This was a dream come true for him and they knew it. Izzy settled a hand into his forearm as a sign of 'calm the fuck down'.

Alec gazed around the room while everyone perused their menus, he already knew what he was getting. It wasn't like he had much choice.

"Are you not looking at what they have Alexander?" Raphael asked, he was to far into his manger role to care that he wasn't technically supposed to be looking after Rune. It had become a knee jerk reaction to say something when someone wasn't paying attention to themselves.

"Oh no. I know what I'm getting" Alec smiled politely, not bothering to elaborate.

When the waiter came around minutes later Alec ordered a whiskey Coke and a salad with no mushrooms. Magnus had to comment on it.

"You're having a salad?" They were in the best steak house in all of London and he ordered a salad?

"Well what else would I have?" Alec asked incredulously.

"Well the stake for starters" Ragnor said joining Magnus' line of questioning.

"Nope can't have it, I'm a vegetarian" Alec rolled his eyes, he thought they would have done a little bit of research.

"And we brought you to a stake house!" Katherine exclaimed, what he must think of them, "why didn't you say anything?"

Alec shrugged, "didn't want to be rude"

His band members snorted in sync. If there was one thing to know about Alec it was he didn't care about being rude when it came to his life and opinions. They knew he was just saying that to keep them in The Downworld's good graces.

Raphael immediately pulled out his phone and started typing away at a new document. He would keep extensive notes about the people he was working with to make sure that their every need was catered to. Dietary requirements seemed like a big thing to him.

From then on conversation shifted to where they would be going on tour, who they would be expected to meet, what they would they would be expected to do. More importantly the bands started to socialise while their staff sorted everything out.

Alec didn't make an effort to get to know anyone really, there was hardly any point. Izzy would tell him everything - every tiny detail - about them later. He was fond of Ragnor though. His default setting seemed to be irritated, which was definitely something Alec could relate to.

It was when he eventually noticed Magnus making eyes at him when he moved. Katherine and Raphael had quickly ushered Robert and Maryse out of the loud room to the beer garden outside (it was honestly suprising how much noise nine people could make) which left a seat open to Magnus' left.

"So I'm the sexiest man in the world?" Magnus crooned as soon as Alec had sat down. He did his best to school his features info something that looked like he wasn't having a crisis.

"I don't know. You'll probably have to do a poll" Alec replied nonchalantly, loving how mild humour changed Magnus' face, "Write to Buzzfeed. I'm sure they'd be happy to help"

"I don't know I think I'd rather just ask the next cutest boy I find" Magnus dramatically looked around the room as if searching for something then his eyes settled on Alec, a smirk on his face, "So am I the sexiest man in the world?"

Alec hummed and pretended to think about it for a minute, finger tapping his chin. He leant forward so that he was in Magnus' personal space, his right elbow coming up to rest on the table, "I don't know if sexy is the right word. Beautiful maybe. Sexy too but more beautiful"

Magnus was smiling, a blush on his cheeks that you couldn't see unless you were very close to his face. Alec was close enough.

"You do know how to flatter don't you" Magnus whispered and leant forward himself. He was itching to touch the man in front of him, so he settled his left hand on Alec's knee.

"I like to think so" They were sat so close now that they could feel the others breath on their face. There was a cough to the side of them, directly across the table.

"Do you two need to get a room?" Jace asked, smirking at his brother. He cocked an eyebrow, a silent question. Alec tipped his chin up slightly, only noticeable to Jace in response. Jace's face broke out into a wide smile.

"No I don't think so" Magnus replied for them, he looked back at Alec and whispered, "At least not yet. I like to be wooed Alexander Lightwood"

Alec laughed and settled back into his chair. Magnus looked slightly put out at the distance between then, but only for the briefest of seconds before he was back to having a flirty smile on his face.

Raphael came back into the room then, motioning for everyone to finish up conversations and do what they needed to do before they left.

Magnus glanced over at Alec - who wasn't doing anything, just watching the others - and he thought about asking if he wanted to meet up sometime, but it was Alec who spoke first.

"I'll see you then" Alec stood and walked over to where his friends were huddled. Magnus gaped after him, did he not realise that Magnus was flirting with him? Did he not see the signs?

"Magnus is staring at you" Clary told Alec as he came to stand next to her.

"I know" Alec smirked, "I've decided that I'm not going to play desperate"

Clary beamed at him and patted his shoulder. She knew exactly what game Alec was playing. This tour was going to be more fun than she expected.

"So what is the game plan?" Izzy asked, her eyes bright with mischief. She enjoyed dating games more than anyone.

"Oh you know" Alec waved a hand dismissively, "Woo him. He did say he likes to be wooed"

"You'll be fucking before you know it" Simon laughed and slapped his brother on the back. They may not be family by blood or adoption but they were family by choice and he would not change them for anything.

"Maybe then we won't have to deal with Alec's sexually frustrated sulking" Jace smirked and winked at Alec who had a small but very amused smile on his face.

As they made their way out the door, Alec made sure to look over his shoulder to send a wink in Magnus' direction. He smirked when he saw Magnus' eyes narrow in confusion. This was going to be fun.

 **A/N: Please review if you like :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Shadowhunters was fantastic! I'm even more in love with Alec and although Magnus was barely in it I was so happy with his character! Matt and Harry are perfect! What did y'all think? Let me know!**

 **Sorry for the first upload of this chapter was broken. Hope it's better now :)**

 **Hijinks in this chapter. Malec. And I have no idea what actually happens at these things but this is what I'm writing. It's not realistic sorry.**

~~~~  
Two weeks later Rune found themselves stood on the floor of Earls Court. They might have cried if they did not have an image to uphold.

"I can't believe we're going to play at Earls Court" Simon whispered, then he wooed and started bounding towards the stage; his hair flapping comically on his head.

The others followed him at a much slower pace, dragging trollies behind them with their equipment on. Luckily they didn't have to worry about amps and speakers, they could just jack The Downworld's stuff.

Simon was on the floor of the stage curled up in a ball and stroking the sticky surface. He looked mental.

"Simon, I love you but this is too much" Izzy attempted to get him to detach himself from the floor by tugging him on the arm. He eventually stood completely dazed.

"I never thought I'd get to play Earls Court" Simon whispered, "especially since it's getting shut down at the end of the year"

Clary patted him on the shoulder, she had had to listen to that part of his dream for years. She was glad that it was coming true for her best friend, if anyone deserved it it was Simon.

"Hello Rune collective!" The five friends turned to see The Downworld walking towards them, Magnus having shouted over and was waving as if he was a Royal.

"Magnus" Alec whispered lowly as the other man came to stand best to him. He didn't bother looking at him, just crossed his arms and directed his attention to Catarina who was talking about how happy they were to have Rune joining them. He smirked a little bit when Magnus looked at him confusedly.

"Ah good we're all here" Raphael approached them, barely managing to glance up from his phone to check that they were all there, "We were going to start with sound check. If you wanted to hand your stuff over to the stage hands they'll set it up for you"

He waved a hand in the direction of a group of people that were stood just off the stage.

"Then while they do that, we'll figure out set lists and anything else we might find a problem with" Raphael began to walk off expecting the group to follow.

"Come on then lads, help me with this" Alec huffed and began trudging off towards the trollies they had left on the floor. Jace and Simon followed, telling Clary and Isabelle that they should go sit down.

"I'm going to do that because I want to, not because I'm a woman that needs a man to do everything for me" Isabelle replied, tossing her hair over her shoulder and then her eyes narrowing in on her brother, "but if you so much as get one tiny scratch on my guitar I will fucking murder you"

Alec held up his hands in surrender, "I have enough to lug around without worrying about your shit!" He pointed to Simon and shrugged.

Izzy glared until Clary patted her on the shoulder prompting her to flounce off towards where Raphael had disappeared to.

The Downworld laughed amongst themselves at the conversation. They remembered the time they had their first opening gig fondly.

"Thanks" Alec muttered to the guy that took his trolley off him, "The pedal latch is a bit tricky, just so you know"

"Don't worry about it," the guy winked at him and shooed him off after the others.

Alec grabbed onto Jace and Simon dragging them behind him. It was going to be a long day.

^•^•^  
What Raphael meant by 'figure out set lists' he meant he was going to grill Rune about every facet of their lives. What they wanted on their riders, did they have allergies, what was their limit on fan interaction.

Alec sat there quietly, inputting a fact here or there but for the most part not saying anything. He wasn't into talking about himself, not by a long shot and Izzy had him covered. She really was the best sister anyone could ask for.

Why The Downworld members had to be sat with them while they did this Alec wasn't really sure. But he was happy to see that everyone was getting along. That would make for a nicer tour at least.

His eyes drifted over to Magnus who was joking with his sister as he thought about the tour. It was exciting and nerve racking. He could only imagine how it was going to go, but he hoped there would be some fun. He hoped.

Magnus coughed and snapped Alec out of his trance with a smirk. His eyes flickered from Alec's to the door. Alec smiled and raised an eyebrow before he stood.

"I'm going out for a fag. Two minutes" He said, his band nodded. They knew that was code for Alec to get out of a stifling situation. He almost felt bad for using it against them.

He waited in the corridor for all of thirty seconds before Magnus was out there with him, throwing a flirty wink over his shoulder and beckoning him into a room off the corridor.

Alec thought about making him wait. Thought about not going in at all. But Alec was selfish and he really wanted to know what Magnus was playing at.

"You know if you don't want them to know anything you should wait longer than thirty seconds before following me" Alec laughed as he was pulled into the room by the fabric of his sweater.

"Well you shouldn't be so fucking irresistible" Magnus was breathing hard and staring at Alec like he wanted him to do something that was very far from being pg-13

"I'll make sure to change that then" Alec whispered.

He took a step forward to push Magnus against the wall behind him. His breath ghosted over Magnus' lips. Magnus keened, trying to close the distance between their lips but Alec's hand kept him firmly in place.

Alec's other hand settled at Magnus' hip, stroking a tiny piece of exposed skin there.

"Please" Magnus whimpered. His voice sounding too harsh to his own ears in the silence.

"I thought you wanted to be wooed" Alec chuckled. Then there was the soft click of a door closing and Magnus was alone again.

He let his head fall back to hit the wall with a dull thud, barely acknowledging the pain. He regretted ever saying he wanted to be wooed. That didn't mean he wasn't looking forward to it though. Although he had a feeling that it wasn't going to be anything close to normal.

^•^•^  
"Fuck!" Alec groaned as he walked back into the room, causing eight heads to snap around to see what the problem was, "I snapped my hair tie" he thrust the thing into his pocket in disgust. Why they had to make the things so damn easy to snap was beyond him.

"Here use mine" Isabelle held out her wrist to her brother. She only ever wore her hair up when they were in the gym, but with the amount that Alec broke his hair ties (mostly in anger), it had become a habit for her to bring a spare.

"You are a life saver" Alec crossed the room and snatched it off her wrist and retreated back to his corner. "Remind me to call the hairdressers when we get home"

"If you let me know when you're free I can do it for you" Raphael commented barely looking up from where he was writing about Jace's distrust of ducks. It confused Alec that he wanted to do so much for them, but he knew that the chances of him winning an argument against Raphael was very small. He only nodded in response as Magnus had just walked back into the room.

"What were we talking about" He sounded like his was in the middle of puberty again, just a touch to high for people to suspect something. Alec's lips quirked up at the corners for a millisecond.

"Are you alright, Mags?" Catarina asked, "You look a little pale"

"I'm fine Cat" He coughed and tried again, "I promise"

She narrowed her eyes, preparing to argue with him, but they were interrupted by a knock of the door. Magnus had never looked so relieved.

"Everything's all ready for you" The man they had spoken to earlier was calling through the door.

"Thank you" Raphael called back and motioned for everyone to get moving.

"So why are we even rehearsing anyway? Aren't we supposed to just do sound check on the day?" Simon asked as they walked.

"So you don't mess up" Raphael told him without remorse, "You're new to the scene and this is Earl's Court-"

"It's a big deal, we know" Simon muttered, maybe he was a little bit mad that Raphael thought they weren't going to be good. They worked hard and it was the Downworld that approached them, not the other way around.

"So you understand that this has to be perfect" That statement did not sooth Simon any. Izzy ended up pulling him into a conversation about the upcoming Star Wars movie to get him to stop sulking. Although it probably only fuelled Simons bad mood. (He was still bitter about episodes one through three)

^•^•^  
"How are we sounding?" Jace called up to the back of the room. The Downworld had migrated to the back of the top tier of seats so they could see how their openers sounded. Normally these things would be done by someone on crew, but Ragnor apparently hated having more than three people on said crew so he volunteered them for the job.

"Not bad, too much Simon though!" Catarina shouted, she was the only one really paying attention at this point. Magnus had roped Malcolm into a conversation about hair dye almost as soon as they'd started and Ragnor was glaring at the back of the seat in front of him. She made a mental note to talk to him.

"Cool thanks Cat!" Simon shouted and dashed off to the edge of the stage so he could mess with some of the sliders.

He eventually came back onto stage and they started playing around with some chords before morphing into one of their more well known songs: Shadow Hunter.

Cat noticed the way that as soon as Alec's part of backing vocals came up Magnus was staring raptly as the stage. She made a mental note to ask about that as well.

"You sound a lot better now! Perfect!" Cat shouted down, clapping her hands a little. She stood and motioned for her friends to also stand. It was about time they did some tinkering on the instruments.

"Ragnor. Please stop sulking" She hauled him up by the collar of his shirt and gently pushed him forward, Magnus and Malcolm already descending the stairs.

"I'm not sulking. Raph's mad at me and I don't know what I've done" He grumbled, it warmed Cat's hear to know that Ragnor trusted her enough to talk about his feelings.

"Talk to him" She whispered, dropping her head to his shoulder as the walked arm in arm, "You're both too stubborn for your own good"

Ragnor snorted and dropped a kiss to her head, a silent thank you.

^•^•^  
Alec was trying his hardest not to drool. Magnus was on stage singing to whatever song it was that they were playing and making lewd gestures against the microphone stand.

"I would like to propose a bet" Jace said to the other three that weren't entrapped by a certain someone on stage.

"You always do" Clary deadpanned. She rolled her eyes at her boyfriend, he seemed to think that he could see the future and was always making bets about something. Mostly shit Alec was going to do or not doing to do as was often the case.

"What is it this time?" Simon was an enabler. He liked taking Jace's money off him, despite the fact that Jace won more often than not.

"When Alec and Magnus are gonna get freaky" Jace replied and nodded his head to where Alec was sat completely unaware of the conversation going on.

"Alright. I'll take your money. Twenty quid?" Simon laughed and shook Jace's hand, Izzy rolled her eyes, "I reckon Iceland"

"No it'll be earlier than that I think Germany" Jace had a wicked smile on his face. He poked Clary on the arm until she gave up and joined in.

"Fine. France"

"They'll be at it before we even leave the country" Isabelle said. She would know, she had the fortunate privilege of being the person that Alec told everything. Which meant that the rest of Rune also knew within a matter of minutes but that was just details.

"Well then. I look forward to finding out who wins" Jace said, settling back into his seat and moving on to annoy Alec to death.

 **A/N: Don't forget to review if you liked it :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: This is going on much longer than I expected. This is also a warning that updates for this and TAL might become a bit sporadic i'm really busy at the minute. That being said, I do have a lot of random bit written out I just need to write the bits in between.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one**

~~~~  
Earl's Court, London a week later.

"This is so exciting!" Simon had barely sat down all day. Rune were huddled in a dressing room all waiting for their set time. It was quarter past 7 and they had half an hour until they were due to go on.

You know I don't think you've said yet, Si" Jace mentioned, he had his feet up on the coffee table and was scrolling through Twitter.

"You know what Jace" Simon was glaring at the blonde, annoyed that he was trying to bring his mood down, "You can go fuck your self"

"But what am I going to do, Simon?" Clary looked up at him innocently, trying not to laugh. Although it had been long established that Jace and Clary were a thing and Simon had made his peace with it, it still made his skin crawl to think of them being together in that way.

Alec groaned loudly, brining all attention in the room to him.

"Will you please stop" He had taken up one of the couches for himself, his feet dangling over the edge of it, and an arm thrown across his eyes, "Simon we're all excited. Very much so. Please sit down and be excited there. Jace stop being such a cunt"

"Thank you, Alec" Simon sat down with a huff, but his excited energy was still palpable, "Are you alright?"

"I think I'm going to have a panic attack" Alec muttered angrily, he hated that he was this way. Hated that he couldn't control himself sometimes.

"Go on mate" Jace was across the room and next to his brother within seconds, "Get some air, we'll come get you when you're needed"

Alec looked at him gratefully, then looked to the others who were all smiling at him kindly and knowingly. He was up and out the door before anything more could be said.

He wandered the back stage aimlessly for a while. Eventually ending up at the stage wings and seeing the masses of people already pouring into hall. It did nothing to calm him down.

Alec quickly left and headed for somewhere more private. He almost wished he could have a cigarette, but he had promised himself that he was going to quit, it did him more harm than good even if they were the best things to calm him down sometimes.

"Alec!" He spun and came face to face with Magnus who was seconds away from barrelling into his chest. Alec caught him when he tripped over a stray wire, holding him by the arms, "Are you ok? You're going on soon, are you not supposed to be pre gaming?"

"I'm fine. I'll head back in a minute" Alec whispered. Magnus being so close to him that Alec could smell the fruity scent of his perfume was not helping him. Or it was. He suddenly felt energised, "I just need to get out of my head a minute"

Magnus smiled a little sadly and pulled away from Alec's arms to grab his hands.

"You're nervous" There was laughter in his eyes now, remembering his first big concert and the nerves that went with it, "You're going to be wonderful"

"Sure you'd say that" Alec mumbled, his eyes were trained on their joined hands; wondering what the fuck was going on.

"Of course I would" Magnus smiled mischievously, "But if you need a little confidence builder. Who am I to deny?"

Alec pulled a face. He had no idea what Magnus was talking about. But before he could even begin to formulate a response, Magnus was raising up on his tiptoes to press his lips against Alec's.

Alec froze. It wasn't until he felt Magnus pulling away that he remembered that his limbs were not autonomous. His hands went to Magnus' hips, pulling him close. He pressed his lips back harder still. He had imagined what kissing Magnus felt like but it couldn't prepare him for this.

Magnus gasped into Alec's mouth as one of his hands moved to squeeze his ass. It jolted Alec back to reality with a harsh blow. Alec ripped away from Magnus. He wanted to say something, but anything he thought he could say might leave him in a worse position.

"I have to go, we'll be on soon" Alec touched his face, apologising "Thank you"

He bolted. He ignored Magnus calling for him and kept going until he was back in the dressing room.

"You feeling better?" Isabelle asked him quietly as he threw himself onto a sofa. Alec smiled.

"Yeah. A lot"

^•^•^  
"By the Angel" Alec breathed as they all got off stage, "Does anyone else feel like the could jump off a cliff right now? In a good way and in a bad way" He shrugged as if to say 'what can you do' when Izzy glared at him.

"So much adrenaline!" Jace jumped on Alec's back winding his arms around his neck, "That was so much fun!"

"Group hug!" Simon crowed and threw himself at Alec, Izzy joined in next then Clary who pulled Jace off Alec first.

"Alec hug us back!" Izzy threatened sweetly. He settled for patting his sister on the back a couple of times then keeping his arms anywhere but around his friends. He ended up looking like he was doing some weird version of the funky chicken.

"You guys were fantastic!" Malcolm called as The Downworld group walked up, his eyes lit up as he saw the group hug. He joined in. Group hugs were his favourite.

"Thanks Malcolm!" Clary smiled up at the guitar player. Over the short time of them knowing each other, Clary had come to really appreciate how kind and supportive Malcolm was.

"Alright you can get off me now" Alec growled and started pushing at his friends. They very deliberately very slowly untangled themselves.

"I suppose you can enjoy our show now" Magnus winked at Alec who just raised an eyebrow. It was like the kiss had been firmly eliminated from their minds. It was anything but.

"I mean I totally want to get started on the booze" Jace shrugged when Clary smacked him on the arm, as if to say 'can you blame me?'.

"No don't" Ragnor was quick to jump in, "Wait for us, then we can show you what an after party is about"

"Alright, you better not be fucking with us Ragnor" Isabelle warned then started tugging Simon off with a joking wink.

"Guess that's our cue" Alec muttered, he ran a hand through his hair; loving that it was back to a manageable length, "Have a great show guys"

Clary and Jace lead the way, Alec only a couple steps behind them. He made sure to sneakily run a hand over Magnus' lower back as he passed the other man. He shivered and flirtly smirked at Alec. Alec left feeling very satisfied with himself.

^•^•^  
"Who decided on the rave paint?" Isabelle was covered in it, she had zigzags across her cheeks and dots across her forehead. Even in luminous yellow she managed to look good.

"Ragnor actually" Magnus laughed, dodging the pen thrown at him with ease, "He likes it, says it's soothing"

"Fuck off Magnus" Ragnor growled but there was no malice behind it, there never was after a gig.

"Alright. I guess we should get going to do some signing if we want to have a decent amount of time to get drunk" Malcolm yawned and stretched, shaking out his hair and offering a hand to Catarina to help her from her seat. She blushed slightly but took it anyway.

"Let's go then" Katherine stood from her own chair next to Maryse and started gathering up things she needed; her phone, spare markers. She rolled her eyes and started pulling her band out of chairs when they didn't move.

"Sometimes you make publicising you so hard" She mumbled and stalked off out the door towards where they would be signing. Maryse followed her out, mumbling something about learning from the best.

"Are you guys not going to come with?" Catarina asked noticing that Rune had no intention to move, "by that I mean come with us"

Simon was immediately on his feet and out the door. He had been trying to think of a way to go with them without sounding desperate.

"Someone should watch him" Clary mumbled and scampered off happily, and where Clary went Jace went.

Isabelle threw up two fingers to Cat and nodded her head towards Alec. She smiled slightly and made sure the door clicked behind her as she left.

A couple of seconds passed in silence before Izzy moved. She curled herself into her brothers side, a well practiced move, and hugged one of his arms to her.

"Do you think you're up to this?" She whispered as she laid her head down on his shoulder.

"Guess we'll find out" Alec muttered in a rare moment of confidence that worried Izzy. She knew Alec hated being so anxious all the time that he forced himself way out of his comfort zone. She worried that it was going to be too much too soon.

"Just promise me you'll leave if it's too much" She whispered. Alec dropped a kiss to the of her head as he finally put an arm around her in a sort of hug.

"I promise"

^•^•^  
"This is fucking mental" Simon breathed in awe. There were about fifty people stood around waiting to meet The Downworld, which didn't really seem like a lot in retrospect but with the hype around it, it was manic.

Alec shuddered out a breath. With any luck he wouldn't have to do anything. He nodded to Jace who had touched his elbow, a silent 'are you alright?' and leant against the wall behind him.

As his friends approached the crowd, immediately being swallowed up, his eyes were inexplicably drawn to Magnus.

He was in his element. The centre of attention, as many teenagers of all genders flocked to him. Some were crying (who Magnus gave the longest hugs), others were shaking from the glee they felt. Magnus was gracious, thanking each and everyone of them for going to their show, and being supportive of their band. He was made for being in the spotlight.

Suddenly, as if he knew he was being watched, Magnus looked towards where Alec was standing, locking eyes with him almost immediately. He faltered for a second upon seeing the intensity in Alec's gaze, but it was soon replaced with a shy sort of smile. Alec was certain that if he was closer, he would see Magnus' cheeks redden.

Magnus beckoned him over. Alec was going to decline. That was before some sort of invisible force pulled him towards Magnus, his feet moving before he could think.

"This is Alec Lightwood" Magnus said to the group surrounding him. Alec couldn't pull his eyes away from him long enough to look at the group, they were beacons in the darkness, "He's the drummer for our openers and all around top lad"

"My reputation precedes me then" Alec joked. He had to remind himself that he wasn't going to panic, it was only a few teenagers. It was oddly easier with Magnus there.

"You guys were fantastic!" One girl screamed in his face. He leant back slightly to distance himself from the onslaught.

"They were weren't they!" Magnus laughed, loving the red that filled Alec's cheeks with the compliment, "I made a good choice asking for them"

There was a chorus of people all trying to speak to Magnus now, give their own opinions. He smiled. Apparently Magnus knew how to draw attention back to himself with a click of his fingers.

Alec stood with them for a few minutes, taking pictures and generally chatting with some people while they waited for their turn with Magnus. However, he was thankful when Raphael decided that it was time for them be heading out to the after party. He was ready for a drink.

 **A/N: Please Review**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Sorry this is a late upload, I just got back from Brussels. I don't know how regular these uploads will be from now on bc i'm really busy, but I hope you enjoy it.**

O2 Academy, Birmingham. Two weeks later

"I swear I am seconds away from pulling him into a dark room and just sucking his cock" Magnus groaned. Cat patted him on the shoulder comfortingly. He and Alec had been dancing around each other since Earl's Court.

From Cat's point of view it was kind of hilarious. Magnus would flirt and Alec would flirt back, but as soon as Magnus got one step closer to initiating something, Alec would take two steps back. All with a knowing smirk on his face.

"I've never wanted to be fucked by someone so bad!" Magnus dropped his head to his arms, mumbling something about sexy blue eyed gods.

"If it makes you feel any better, Mags" Malcolm piped up from where he was laid on the sofa on the other side of the tour bus, "He quite clearly want to fuck you. You should see the way he stares at your ass when you're dancing"

"It's quiet disgusting really" Ragnor chuckled. For all the times Magnus had done what Alec was doing, he was not good at receiving the same attention. It would be endlessly amusing to him.

"Well why doesn't he!" Magnus cried, then sheepishly smiling at Raphael who was glaring at the outburst.

"Like you said Magnus. Maybe the only option is to drag him off somewhere private" Katherine laughed from the front of the bus where she was answering emails, and making calls to check their hotel reservations.

"Looks like it" He got up from his seat and moved over to the bunks, climbing in his and shutting the curtain. The was no such thing as privacy on a tour bus and he was in the mood to sulk alone.

^•^•^  
On the other bus things were a lot more lively. Now that they had the bet going, Jace and Simon were intent on finding out Alec's progress. So far they were both pleased.

"Have you even kissed him?" Simon asked. He was laid out on one of the couches that lined the side of bus, his lyrics book laid on his chest. He needed some distraction so he stopped thinking about lyrics rather than feeling them.

"Yes" Alec replied curtly, he was attempting to be engrossed in a new report about industrial pollution. He might not have become an Environmental Lawyer, but that did not mean he stopped giving a shit.

"So what is the actual plan?" Jace ripped Alec's phone away from his hands and sat on it so that Alec was forced to talk to him.

Alec sighed and gave Jace his best tiredly disappointed face. He had a least some decency to look sheepish. He still didn't give it back.

"Fine" Alec rearranged himself so that he was more comfortable, "Izzy! Clary! Your boyfriends are forcing me to talk about my sex life! This is your opportunity too!" He called down to the back of the bus. While he was comfortable enough talking about his sex life in passing comments, he wasn't too fond of it being a whole subject that needed discussing.

Izzy hobbled into view, toe separators on and hand spread wide so not to wipe the freshly applied polish. It was bright gold this time. Clary followed, only her hands painted a dark green.

"Ok then, tell us everything" Izzy had forced Simon to move his feet so her and Clary could sit down.

"I'm not looking for a relationship" Alec said before they could say anything, "That's not my thing. This is just sex."

He narrowed his eyes in warning as he saw Jace's mouth open. He was the one who forced Alec to do this, he did not get to make sarcastic comments.

"I'm pretty sure we aren't going to have the issue of who tops" He muttered absentmindedly. What did he want to tell his siblings?

"Why?" Jace asked innocently. Alec barely spared him a glance, he knew he was trying to wind him up. Not today. He was feeling peaceful for once, Jace wasn't going to ruin that.

"He loves the attention" He shrugged as if to say 'it's a liking dick in your ass thing'

"What does that even mean!?" Clary laughed. She may have been more than a little curious.

"Well bottoming kinda sucks? I hate it?" Alec shrugged, "Pretty much all attention is on you, making sure you're not hurting and all that shit"

"You're right. You would hate that" Izzy snorted and went back to checking the state of her nail polish, "but what's the plan"

"Wind him up so tight that he'll beg for it" Alec smirked, "I love it when they beg"

"Ok that's enough of that!" Simon threw a pen at Alec, who caught it with a practiced ease that came with having pens thrown at you often.

"So how long will it take you?" Jace asked leaning forward in interest and completely ignoring Simon, although that was already common place. There was sixty quid in play here, he wanted to have the right Intel.

"I don't know" Alec smirked, "but if last night was anything to go by it'll be soon"

"What happened last night?" Isabelle asked, her eyes alight with curiosity.

"Nope" Alec popped the 'p', held his hands up and settled back into his seat, "I've said all that I'm going to on the matter. Now if you could fuck off and leave me in peace"

He pushed Jace off the seat and snatched up his phone. He wasn't going to tell them every single little detail about this thing. He liked to keep some of his life private.

^•^•^  
Alec was asleep when their bus pulled up next to the other in the car park of the hotel. He was jolted awake by his mother, she was smiling down at him saying something that his still sleep hazed mind couldn't quiet comprehend.

He was tugged into alertness with a sharp pain in his lip. Somehow his sweater sleeve had become caught on his lip piercing and now he couldn't pull them apart. He wandered the bus for a minute, only to realise that everyone else was already off and talking to the Downworld. He was going to look a right mug walking around with his arm pressed to his face, but someone needed to sort this because it was starting to cramp up.

"Hey mum? Can you give us a hand?" Alec gestured to his face as he walked off the bus. He could see Jace laughing at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Alec how do you manage these things?" Maryse tutted fondly, she gently pried at the fastening for the piercing, and pulled it from his lip so she could unwind the cotton.

"Thank you" He kissed her on the cheek, took his stud out her outstretched hand and headed over to where his friends were stood.

"Hey Alec! This hotel has a gym!" Jace was bouncing on his toes, his eyes wide in barely contained excitement, "It's been way too long since I punched you in the face!"

"Why do you need to punch me in the face?" Alec asked, using Isabelle's phone screen that she silently, without question held up for him to put his piercing back in.

"You're my best friend, I always need to punch you in the fucking face" Jace said, Alec nodded in agreement. He made a fair point.

"Well I for one need to do some yoga" Clary stretched her arms above her head, "my back is giving out"

"I will definitely join you," Magnus said, having only been paying half attention, but Alec looked damn sexy with bed head. "I'm starting to tighten up" He smirked at Alec.

Alec thought he might be gaping, but the lack of Jace like laughter told him that he was doing a pretty good job of keeping his screaming internal. All that was going through his mind now was the thought of Magnus in yoga pants. Magnus in yoga pants. He probably should leave before he popped a boner in front of everyone, Alec thought.

"Why are you standing around?" Raphael came storming to them, obviously something bad happened, "If you want any spare time you better get a move on"

He didn't even stop to berate them, just kept on walking, more like stalking off to the entrance to the hotel. Alec thought that if he had sort of religiosity he would pray for the person that had to deal with him.

As Alec started walking he felt a hand slip around his bicep, latching on as if he were in the process of courting them. He glanced down at Magnus, an eyebrow raised in question. But he didn't remove his hand. It seemed like his 'wooing' was doing better than he thought.

"How was your journey then, Alexander?" Magnus holding onto him had slowed Alec down, the shoes he wore were not practical for manoeuvring cobblestone and his strides were not nearly as long.

"Good. Slept mostly. Last night killed me" Alec whispered, dropping his head so that his mouth was hovering just a little distance away from Magnus' ear. He held back a chuckle when he heard Magnus' breath hitch, "How was yours?"

"Oh you know" Magnus waved dismissively with his free hand, causing him to stumble a little bit. Alec quickly steadied him before he could tumble to the floor, receiving a grateful smile in return, "Everyone asked about my sex life, we argued about the new episode of Arrow"

"Oh yeah?" Alec was suddenly a lot more interested in what Magnus was saying.

"Yeah. I stand by my opinion that very muscly typical alpha males are hot. They may be cunts but are very hot" Magnus smirked as Alec unknowingly puffed his chest out, "As for my sex life"

Magnus stopped them and turned to face Alec, the heels he was wearing put him up to up to just under Alec's eye level. They were stood so close together that their breathing mingled.

"We decided that I should take you off somewhere to suck your dick, just so you get the message" He whispered, their lips almost touching now. Magnus patted Alec's chest, the touches lingering long after he strutted away before Alec could respond.

All Alec could do was follow, watching Magnus' hips sway with a very pleased, very smug smile on his face.

^•^•^  
As it turned out, Raphael was right. They had just enough spare time to wash the 'sitting on a bus for four hours ' grime off before being forced back into the bus and heading to soundcheck.

Then there was no time after sound check to do anything because there was a problem with the sound system that delayed them for a couple of hours.

Tensions were high and everyone was on edge. One misstep could see them being cussed out by Raphael for a while, as proven by Ragnor telling him to stop being so stressed. He did not appreciate it. Not in the slightest.

They managed to make it back to the hotel with an hour and a half to spare before they had to be heading out again. Any other day Alec would have dragged Jace off to the gym to take out his frustrations, but all he wanted now was to sleep.

He collapsed face first on his bed, his arm pressed underneath him at an awkward angle. He was too tired to move. The noise he made when someone knocked in the door was akin to a dying whale.

"What?" Alec was tired, and when he got tired he got angry. That being said he got angry at a lot of things, so it wasn't entirely correlational.

"Well I was hoping to come in, hang out but if you don't want to" Magnus shrugged, checking his nails, humour apparent all over his face. Alec considered the options, he could sleep or he could do something with Magnus. He stepped aside before he could truly decide.

Magnus waltzed in, taking in the room with casual disinterest, his eyes flickering to the open suitcase on the floor. Alec felt his face burning in embarrassment, he didn't know he was going to have company.

Alec watched him from where he had moved to stand against a wall, the door falling shut with a tiny click behind him. One of his eyes twitched when Magnus threw himself onto the bed, his head falling in between the pillows.

"I think your bed is comfier than mine" He said, absentmindedly trailing his hands over the sheets, looking at Alec through his eyes lashes, "Of course I haven't done the proper tests"

"Oh? What constitutes as a proper test?" Alec was fighting every urge he had to ravish Magnus, he looked so good like that. Magnus' eyes narrowed, pissed off that Alec wasn't taking the hint.

"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough" Magnus stood up from the bed and made his way over to Alec. He noticed that Magnus had changed his shoes so he was back to being a lot smaller than him. He preferred it that way, "But not now, you look tired"

Magnus had come to a stop in front of Alec, his chest brushing the skin of Alec's folded arms. He leant up on his toes seemingly going into for a kiss, only to change direction to press a tiny kiss on Alec's cheek.

"I'll see you later" He whispered. Alec was confused. First Magnus was talking about hanging out, then he was making a pass at him, only to leave a couple of seconds after. What was happening?

 **A/N: Review Please**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who's still sticking with this and I'm really sorry that there's huge gaps between updates. I'm going to try to get as much of this written as possible while I'm still off school this week. This chapter jumps around a lot but there really was no getting around it.**

 **Hey there's a slight smut warning to go with this. So enjoy**

Alec was walking from the stage to the room that Rune had been allocated to 'relax' in while they waited for The Downworld to start when he was forcibly dragged into a dimly light storage room.

"We have to stop meeting like this" Alec laughed as his back hit a wall. He stopped himself from groaning at the impact because whatever it was Magnus was doing he definitely did not want him to stop.

Magnus had immediately attached his mouth to Alec's neck, paying particular attention to the swirling tail of a snake that peeked out from under his shirt on his collar bone. Alec thanked past him for deciding to get that tattoo as it led to things like this. Things that he very much enjoyed.

"What are you doing?" Alec panted. One of Magnus' hands had somehow travelled to the button of his jeans without him noticing, and was deftly undoing it with nimble fingers. It was a marvel that he could do it with only one hand.

"You have a show to play in like fifteen minutes" Alec wanted to shut himself up because Magnus suddenly had a hand on his cock, and he was trying to get him to stop. He didn't want him to stop. In fact, it was probably the last thing he wanted at that very moment in time.

"I'm making my hints obvious" Magnus whispered directly into Alec's ear, making him shiver. All thoughts that Alec had went out of the window as Magnus sunk to his knees, eyes never leaving Alec's. In the dim light of the room, Magnus' eyes were a beacon. Alec was transfixed.

His head fell heavily back against the wall when Magnus licked a stripe up the veiny underside of his cock. Any pain he might have felt from smacking his head was arbitrary compared to the pleasure he was feeling because of what Magnus was doing.

Alec wanted to comment on it, on anything Magnus was doing or saying. Something witty about how Magnus wasn't very good at giving hints, something about Magnus wanting to be more mysterious than he actually was, or even something about how good looked with his lips around Alec's cock. He would have taken anything over the pathetic whimper that actually escaped him.

Alec moved his head like it was a tonne of bricks. He was completely entranced by what Magnus was doing. There may have been a brief thought of annoyance because Magnus managed to look flawless even when Alec had messed up his hair by gripping mercilessly at it. There also might have been a second of horror when he realised that people would know what they were doing. Then he wasn't bothered, Magnus was sucking his dick, it was hard to focus on anything else.

"Mess it up real good" Magnus whispered, panting slightly as his hand made up for the lack of mouth, "the crowd will love seeing my sex hair"

Alec tried to respond to that too, but Magnus had sunk his mouth back onto Alec's dick, his nose reaching the soft hair at the base. Alec groaned and held Magnus there for a second, relishing the feeling of Magnus swallowing around him.

Magnus' eyes flickered up to meet his, a look of pure innocence (that he definitely wasn't) on his face that sent Alec into a frenzy. He held Magnus head still and slowly started thrusting, groaning from the sensations it was creating.

Then the pace started to quicken up and Alec was losing his grip on Magnus' hair, having to grasp and re-grasp after every thrust. Magnus just knelt there, like he was perfectly fine with being used in such a way, which only made Alec go crazier.

Alec's hips stuttered and made to pull Magnus off his dick, unsure of how this was going to go. Even if they were going to love seeing Magnus' sex hair – something that Alec also enjoyed to look at, especially knowing that he was the one to cause it – they might be a little bit disgusted if he went out with dried cum all over his face.

Magnus had other ideas. He forced his way down Alec's cock, hollowing his cheeks and humming lightly. Then Alec was seeing stars and cumming. His head hit the wall with a dull thud once more. His hips jerked and his hands struggled to do anything other than grip and release the hair at Magnus' temples.

"Fuck" Alec whispered once he had come down from his high, his chest heaving "Fuck. You're amazing"

Magnus slowly went about untangling Alec's fingers from his hair, and letting his rapidly softening cock slide out of his mouth. He smirked and licked his lips as he tucked Alec back into his jeans, then stood up to pull Alec in for a burning kiss. Alec moaned at the salty hint to the taste of Magnus. His hands, suddenly useful again fell to Magnus' hips to pull him closer; probably leaving bruises in their wake.

"Do you understand me yet?" Magnus whispered, nibbling slightly on Alec's ear lobe; a move that very much made him shiver. Alec's eyes flickered to his, a feral grin spreading on his lips. Magnus wanted him to give up and there was no way in hell that was happening.

"I don't think I do" He whispered and gently pushed Magnus away from him so he could run his callused thumb over Magnus' kiss swollen bottom lip, "We'll talk about you and your hints later"

Magnus looked gobsmacked. If for nothing else because Alec was walking away from him, leaving him completely hard and still unsure of what his motives were. He leant his head against the cold wall and groaned like he was a dying whale.

That was how Catarina found him, muttering about stupid boys and their games, and how he couldn't at least be on time for once. She practically dragged him to the stage wing by his ear, it at least killed his boner so he was somewhat grateful. He was more grateful for the packet of Polo's Ragnor launched at him, though he did wonder how he knew. Then he saw Raphael silently laughing at him like he did, completely devoid of emotion except for in his eyes. At least someone was happy with the situation.

^.^.^.^

"He did what?!" Isabelle cackled gleefully. They were crammed into the bathroom of Alec's hotel room like they would do at home. Alec in the bath, Clary on the toilet seat and the other three squashed together on the floor. Alec's bathroom was the only one they could do this in really because it was the only that wasn't shared between two people so it was still relatively clean.

"He sucked my fucking dick Iz" He replied, blushing furiously and laughing as he said it. Maybe they were still hungover from the after party the night before. Alec had demanded they all do celebratory shots for reasons he would explain later and so he didn't have to mix with a crowd completely sober.

"And you didn't return the favour? For shame brother" Despite his words, Jace did look rather proud of him as he clapped him on the shoulder at albeit an awkward angle.

"Serves him bloody right!" Alec laughed, "I was perfectly happy wooing him like he wanted-"

"Not like he wanted you mean" Simon interjected shooting a cheeky grin at Alec who narrowed his eyes playfully, "You were sexually frustrating the guy"

"Alright. I might have been" Alec held his hands up with a shrug, "But that doesn't mean I wasn't going somewhere with it"

"I think you should just fuck him already, Alec" Clary said as she twirled a strand of orange hair around her fingers, "Don't ruin this for us"

"I'm not going to ruin this for us" Alec said defensively, "I'll wrap it up soon. Scouts honour"

"You were never in the scouts" Jace said confusedly and effectively moved the conversation along from Alec's sexual escapades.

^.^.^.^.^

Alec didn't have much time to make any progress after that. They were almost immediately on the tour bus on their way to Manchester. Then when they got to Manchester they were sent straight to sound check, so when they finally got a free moment they decided that they were going to get lunch and the two bands ended up in a Nandos.

They managed to find a booth near the back of the establishment in the hope that they wouldn't be disturbed too much. Alec was the first to sit down, pushing himself up against the wall and letting one of his arms rest on the back of the booth. Magnus settled himself next to Alec with a flirty smile. Alec smiled back as a challenge and let his arm fall to settle around Magnus' shoulders.

"I think I'm tired of this game we're playing" He whispered as the others sat down and started hand menus out. Magnus replied by kissing the base of Alec's neck while no one was paying them attention and nodded his head excitedly.

"So why didn't you go to Uni?" Magnus asked him later through his burger. Alec watched in abstract horror as the chicken grease dripped onto the plate in front of him, "No one want you?"

"Very funny. No they all did. I got an unconditional from my favourite" Alec sighed and bit into a chip, "But things happened and I guess I didn't fancy it. I kind of regret it but not really"

"I know what you mean" Magnus nodded, then he smiled, "Tell me about what you did to get an unconditional though? That never happens! Did you find the Holy Grail?" Alec laughed at that, ignoring the glances that Isabelle and Jace kept sending his way.

"No. I just had really good grades in year 12, four As. Worked my arse off for em too. I mean it probably helped that I was volunteering every weekend and involved with the debate team and student union." Alec shook his head and laughed, "It's a wonder I ever got laid"

"I don't know. Smart is the new sexy isn't it" Magnus replied, stealing a chip from Alec's plate and attempting to look innocent, "What subjects were you doing?"

"History, English Lit, Sociology and French. Though I did drop French for year 13. I was already fluent" Alec tried to say it without seeming too smug, but he couldn't help it. After years of repressing it, he didn't care if people thought he was cocky, he was really proud of himself.

"Alright Mr. could be lawyer" Magnus was smiling at the smugness, he wasn't ashamed to say that he found it attractive, "Some of us only did Fashion studies."

"I'm not even going to joke about it being an easy subject. Iz did fashion and I saw how long she spent sewing a dress. That shit looked hard" Alec pushed his plate closer to Magnus when he saw him eyeing the chips again, he might have well been a seagull reincarnated.

"I almost miss it. But then I think of all the pin picks and then not so much" Magnus smiled in thanks for the offer of chips, and snatched a couple of them up. Alec locked gazes with Izzy over his head and seeing her smile encouragingly was enough for him to smile back at Magnus. It was odd how much more he was smiling because of Magnus.

^.^.^.^.^

Magnus was twirling and dancing across the stage as he sung. He stopped to dance against Ragnor, who was attempting to glare at him through his laughter. Magnus could get away with pretty much anything when they were on stage.

He caught sight of Alec watching them from the wings and winked at him as he started rolling his hips. Alec smirked and raised his eyebrows as a challenge. After their conversation at lunch the day before, Magnus had realised that he was starting to feel something more than base attraction for Alec and it worried him because he got the feeling that Alec was only after sex. He didn't mind, Magnus wanted that too, but there was a part of him that said he should leave it in case he got his heart broken. Seeing Alec watch him hungrily like he did was just enough to shut that part of him up for the time being.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Sorry that I haven't updated in a while! I was really struggling writing one bit, but seeing all the reviews, follows and favourites really helped me get back on the horse with this one! Y'all are the sweetest. I hope you enjoy this one.**

 **Also a sort of smut warning goes with this**

Alec was huddled against an exposed brick wall, his eyes alight with amusement as he watched his friends disperse into the crowd of people. They were high off the feeling of just having played their music to one of the largest and most excitable crowds of the tour so far. Ragnor was particularly happy because one of the fans had gifted him with a bottle of his favourite whisky and it showed as he let a little bit looser.

Alec wasn't usually one to join the foray of sweaty people gyrating against each other to a beat, but the way that Magnus was staring at him as he sensually moved his body was making him want to rethink his stance. He didn't have time to make the decision on his own because Magnus had obviously gotten bored of waiting for Alec to make a move and left the swell of bodies to stand beside him.

"Why don't you join us?" He called over the loud music but Alec still had to lean down slightly to hear him. Magnus rolled his eyes at the movement.

"I'm not much of a dancing person" Alec replied with a shrug that was difficult to do when leant against a wall, "I need a lot more alcohol in me before I embarrass myself like that"

"Well now that you mention it, do you want another drink?" Magnus said, nodding to the half empty beer bottle in his hand. Alec watched a rivulet of condensation run down the side as he contemplated his next words, he wasn't enjoying the beer and he had other things on his mind. He pushed off the wall with his head and turned his body towards Magnus.

"How about we get out of here instead?" Magnus nodded enthusiastically. He snatched the beer out of Alec's hand, downed it – grimacing at the taste – and then swept up Alec's now free hand in his own. Alec was all too happy to let Magnus drag him out of the club and into an already waiting taxi.

By the time they arrived back at Magnus' room they had barely spoken, barely touched in the attempt to remain calm in front of the other. It would have worked too if they weren't so focused on every move the other made.

"So-" Alec began but it was all he could manage before Magnus was dragging him down to meet him in a searing hot kiss that left the both of them breathless.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that" Magnus panted against Alec's lips. He had one of his hands twisted in the hair at the nape of Alec's neck and the other gripping Alec's bicep like it was a life raft. Alec laughed breathlessly and backed Magnus up until he hit the wall and then kissed him again.

They slowly lost layers of clothes as they kissed. Shirts dropping to the floor and kisses replacing them. Alec didn't want to rush this, if they were going to be spending a lot of time together on the rest of the tour there was no point in making things uncomfortable. He wanted to spend time worshipping the body in front of him.

Magnus slowly began to walk them back towards the bed. It was difficult because he was walking backwards and Alec's lips on his neck were very distracting. He fell as the back of his legs hit the edge of the bed. Alec managed to throw his arms out to break his fall and not land on top of Magnus. They stared at each other for a brief second before their lips were crashing together again.

Eventually Alec started to work his way down Magnus' body, leaving angry looking bruises in his wake. Magnus held his breath when Alec reached his thighs. Alec's eye flickered up to Magnus', a feral smirk spreading on his face when he saw the effect he was having on the other man. Magnus' trousers and underwear were gone soon after that. Alec spent a long time kissing and nipping at Magnus' thighs, the quiver in them only spurring him on.

"What do you want Magnus?" Alec breathed over his cock, making it twitch in its neglect. Magnus was opening and closing his mouth, not dissimilar to a fish but a thousand times more attractive.

"I want you to fuck me" Magnus replied, his voice surprisingly steady. He pulled Alec to meet him for a bruising kiss by his hair, "I want you to fuck me until I can't remember my own name"

"Is that so?" Alec whispered. His fingers were making circuits on the outsides of Magnus' thighs, causing the man underneath him to shiver.

Magnus nodded vigorously. His fingers had tightened to an almost painful grip in Alec's hair as Alec teased him. The longer they stayed like this, the quicker he found himself falling apart.

"You have lube right?" Alec asked, he looked almost disgusted that there might not be any, "We are not fifteen and discovering ourselves for the first time, I am not spiting on my dick"

Magnus laughed and pushed him off the bed, pointing at one of his semi-unpacked bags. He also took the opportunity to appreciate the way Alec's jeans stretched over his ass. Alec made a triumphant noise then he was back on the bed and well on the way to making Magnus forget his own name.

He was surprisingly gentle as he opened Magnus up, slowly working his fingers in and out of Magnus' hole and up to three fingers. Magnus guessed it was because he wanted Magnus to be on the edge before he even had any dick in him. If it was that it was working.

"Just fuck me already!" Magnus groaned as Alec found that spot that made him see stars.

"So demanding" Alec muttered but he didn't argue, just chuckled at Magnus' whimper when he was suddenly empty. He pushed in slowly until he was breathing hard and his arms were shaking from keeping him propped up above Magnus.

"Move. Please" Magnus groaned. Alec didn't need any more prompting. He drew his hips back until only the tip of his dick was still in Magnus then slammed them back hard enough that Magnus inched up the bed.

Alec liked to tease, alternating between long, hard strokes that made Magnus whimper, and short, fast ones that made him scream. It had been a while since Magnus had taken such an enthusiastic lover, one that knew exactly how to make him come undone in their own way. And come undone and untouched he did.

They lay panting side by side once they were done. Neither one of them wanted to be the one to break the silence, weary of the possible awkwardness, but Magnus had never been one for silence. It suffocated him like water filling his lungs to the brim and the only option he had was to claw his skin open red and raw to let the liquid spill out to let him breathe again.

"That was-"

"Yeah" The words seemed to spur Alec back into motion. He rolled off the bed to his feet. Magnus watched him through hooded eyes, appreciating his view of Alec's tattooed back and the way his muscles rippled when he stretched his shirt over his head. It was slightly disappointing when he lost sight of the moon nestled in between Alec's shoulder blades.

"Do all your tattoos have meanings?" He asked once he was no longer distracted. Alec shrugged.

"To some extent"

"That's a bit cryptic, don't you think" Magnus muttered, he stood from the bed and stretched from head to toe. Alec watched him as hungrily as expected, Magnus smirked, "Why the moon?"

"It's part of a pair. Jace has the sun" Alec replied. He rolled his eyes at Magnus' look, but continued on explaining, "We're a harmonious partnership vital to the well-being of the world"

"Well, you do think highly of yourselves don't you" Magnus scoffed. He didn't expect Alec to justify himself so he redressed himself in less restricting clothes that he had worn at the club.

"Not really when you consider our world starts and ends with our family" Alec shrugged again. Magnus turned to face him, there was something about Alec that he just couldn't figure out; one minute he was sarcastic and distant, the next he was confessing the reason for his existence. He was a puzzle that Magnus was so desperate to figure out.

"What about Clary and Simon?"

Alec smiled, it was slow and almost condescending, "I'm sure you of all people know that family doesn't end with blood, it barely even starts with it"

Magnus nodded. It was no secret that he had a poor relationship with parents, biological or otherwise. His mother was dead, his biological father was a mystery and his step-father was rotting in a jail cell. The numerous foster families he had bounced around up until he was eighteen had never been enough for Magnus to trust a parental figure ever again. He had enough family in his band mates, they were more than he could ask for and definitely more than he deserved.

"As much as I would like to stay and chat, it's getting late and we'll have to leave early tomorrow" Alec said as he re-tied his hair into a knot. Magnus followed him to the door, trying to think of something to say. Alec solved that problem for him. He had pulled the door open and checked to see if anyone would see him leaving Magnus' room, then spun around to capture Magnus in a breathtakingly tender kiss.

Magnus was shocked. He expected something much more callous. The hand that settled over his collar bone and the thumb that stroked possessively over a hicky that Alec had left there served as a reminded that they weren't dating, but Magnus wanted to, oh how he wanted to. He pulled away from Alec with all his will power. He wouldn't let himself fall for this boy before they even really knew each other.

"Goodnight Alec" Magnus whispered, refusing to meet Alec's eyes. Alec inclined his head in response then disappeared down the corridor to his own room. Magnus collapsed against the door in a bid to shut it.

He was so fucked.

^.^.^.^.^

The next morning on the tour bus, Alec was sat down in front of his friends in what seemed to be an intervention. He was almost excited to see what they had come up with.

"We understand that you hate the after parties Alec" Izzy began slowly. She sat closest to him, gently taking his hands in hers, "but you can't disappear and not answer your phone all night. We were really worried about you" Alec struggled to refrain from rolling his eyes. Sometimes he was convinced they forgot that he was the oldest.

"Yeah mate, how were we going to finish the tour without a drummer" Jace said, wolfish grin on his face. Alec did roll his eyes then, at least Jace wasn't overreacting.

"I didn't answer because I was busy" Alec replied. He detached himself from Izzy's grip and stood, "I know that you worry about me and I appreciate the thought. But you don't need to, that's my job" He stepped over Clary's feet, heading towards the beds.

"What do you mean you were busy?" Izzy demanded. Clary and Simon were wisely sitting out of the way. It was always touch and go how aggressive the Lightwood siblings would get with each other, they trusted them enough not to start throwing punches in such a confined space. That didn't mean they wouldn't start something they would finish later.

"Let's just say everyone owes you twenty quid, Iz" Alec started cackling as the other four's jaws dropped.

"You knew?" Jace squawked. He had the decency to look a little bit embarrassed, but Alec knew it was because they had been caught and not because they were betting on his life. Alec had made his peace with the practice long ago so it didn't bother him as much as it once would have.

"Of course I knew, you fucking spanner" Alec laughed, "You were sat right next to me! Magnus wasn't that distracting!"

"Why did you let Izzy win though?" Jace called as Alec disappeared into one of the bunks, "We're supposed to be best friends!"

"I'm entirely too selfish to care and I didn't get Izzy anything for passing her A-levels" Alec called back. He pulled the curtain shut to muffle Jace's grumbling about losing money and in the hope that he could get a little bit of sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: AHH it's been too long since I updated this! Things are gonna start picking up and this chapter is all over the place because it's kind of fillery, but I promise more plot is coming! Thanks for all the follows, favourites and reviews, you're all so kind!**

They continued on like that for the rest of the UK leg of their tour. They would spend the day flirting and talking, but Alec would never tell Magnus anything personal even when Magnus had shared many of his stories. Then they would separate to prepare for the gigs – coming together only briefly to trade dirty blowjobs in a secluded closet. Later Alec would force himself to go to the after parties and Magnus would drag him away to his hotel room, no longer than half way through the party. They would fuck and Alec would leave. By the time they were back in London, Magnus was walking with an almost constant limp. He didn't mind so much when he remembered how he got it.

"I love a catwalk!" Magnus twirled at the end of said catwalk that was attached to the stage they would be playing on. Both bands were there, just waiting around until they had something to do and it was always good to familiarise themselves with where they would be playing.

"You look very good on a catwalk" Alec said. Magnus smiled coyly as Alec's eyes raked over his body. Ever since that first night, Alec had been a lot more forthcoming in his flirtations. Magnus was in a constant state of half arousal.

"Magnus is beautiful and sexy and gorgeous and I want to fuck him all the time" Izzy said in a terrible imitation of Alec's voice, "You two need to get a room"

Alec's eyes blazed something furious for a second, but he slowly extended his hand to Magnus. Magnus laughed and ran the full length of the catwalk to forego Alec's hand and leap onto his back instead, burying his head in Alec's neck. Alec stumbled but recovered. Neither of them said anything as they began to leave the stage. The others were content to watch them go with only rolled eyes as a reaction, this had been a regular occurrence.

"Don't go anywhere!" Katherine shouted breathlessly as she ran into the main room, brandishing her phone. She stopped in front of the group to pant and held a hand up to stop the others talking as she regained her breath, "You need to listen to this"

' _So Annie Mac, what's our hottest record in the world tonight?'_ Greg James' voice crackled over the speaker on Katherine's phone. Jace was shushed as soon as he opened his mouth to ask what was happening.

' _Well, if you've heard of The Downworld, you'll know that they're currently on their second European tour. Tonight's hottest record comes from the band supporting them. They're called Rune, a five piece band from London made up of Alec, Jace and Izzy Lightwood and their friends Clary Fray and Simon Lewis. I've been obsessed with them since I saw them open for The Downworld at Earl's Court earlier in the year. Seriously, look out for it tonight because it is such an incredible song'_

"What the actual fuck" Alec breathed. Magnus slowly slid off Alec's back and rested his chin on his shoulder with a chuckle.

' _I'm going to see The Downworld tonight actually, once I'm finished here! What's the song called?'_ Simon choked on his own tongue and needed a couple of slaps on the back from Jace so he could breathe again.

' _It's called Shadow Hunter. Lead vocals are incredible and the guitar, keyboard, synth mesh they have in the middle is genius'_ the voices tapered off into a different topic and the members of Rune stared at each other until Izzy broke the silence.

"We have the hottest fucking record in the world" She breathed. She turned her eyes to Simon, a smile spreading over her face as she threw herself at him, "We have the hottest fucking record in the world!" she screamed.

Simon latched onto her like he was drowning and she was his life raft. He started laughing, then he was crying. Jace and Clary were laughing at their friend, but soon joined Simon and Izzy for the start of a group hug.

"Alec! We have the hottest fucking record in the world right now, you better be seconds away from joining this group hug!" Izzy growled at her brother through the small gap she had between Clary and Simon. Alec heaved a sigh but steadily detached himself from Magnus and wound his arms around the group. It was stiff and awkward, but his band mates knew the significance of the move and were very grateful.

They broke apart quickly after.

"This is mad" Clary announced once they were all free from hugs, "I can't actually believe it"

"What do we do now?" Izzy said. She was admiring her blood red nail polish as if she wasn't freaking out like the rest of them were, she had always been the best at remaining composed.

"I guess we tweet right?" Simon said, phone already in hand and pushing Clary closer to Jace, "Let's get a photo of us looking hot to say thanks"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Lewis" Jace scoffed, "we always look hot"

No one bothered to dignify Jace with a response. They were used to his ego, and while it was sometimes endearing, he had a tendency to overdo it sometimes.

Simon held his phone out in camera mode to Catarina, silently asking if she could take the picture. She swept it up without comment and waited for the group to arrange themselves into a suitable formation.

Alec stood in the centre of their group, hands in his pockets and head tilted to the side slightly, as Isabelle pulled Clary to stand next to her in front of him. Jace and Simon fell into place behind them and on either side of Alec. None of them smiled, just smirked knowingly at the camera.

"Would it kill any of you to smile?" Malcolm asked from where he was leaning over Catarina's shoulder to look at the viewfinder.

"Image is everything" Jace waved dismissively, but his smirk did grow into more of a smile.

"Done" Cat handed Simon his phone back. She had taken a few pictures, some where they weren't in position and laughing at each other as they pushed each other around.

Simon immediately handed his phone off to Isabelle, who, with Jace, analysed every picture until they found the perfect one.

The tweet they sent out read: ' _#ShadowHunter is Hottest Record in the world baby! Cheers BBCR1 #CelebrateWithUsLater #WereGonnaGetTrashed'_ with the picture attached.

It turned out to be a great end to the first leg of the tour.

^.^.^.^

Magnus was very thankful that they could go to Ibiza, it was a required gig for any self-respecting quasi dance music band. It was a beautiful place and the sun was perfect. After years of living in England, he almost forgot what temperatures above fifteen degrees felt like so being in Europe felt like coming home.

Not only was he grateful for the heat and the beauty, but he was also very very grateful that it meant that Alec spent the majority of the time without a shirt on. He was laid on a sun lounger on the beach watching the Lightwoods and their friends engage in a game of beach volleyball.

Alec, Jace and Isabelle had originally been on a team together, claiming "Lightwoods all together" as they scored point after point against Simon and Clary. The way they moved was nothing short of otherworldly, Izzy would dig the serve to Alec perfectly, who would set it for Jace to spike the ball with some sort of showmanship. It didn't last long before Izzy was joining Simon and Clary's team who were complaining of the unfairness of it all.

Alec and Jace were an unstoppable force, even with the addition of Izzy to the other team. They somehow made just having the two of them seem like they had a player on the other team, it never hindered their desire to win.

Magnus' breath caught in his throat when Alec divided across their half of the court to dig the ball for Jace to lift further up in the air. It made a high arc in the air, the sun glinting off the droplets of water that had somehow made their way onto the ball. Alec scrambled from his place on the floor to get in a position that would allow him to send the ball back over the net. As it did, Izzy set herself to dig the ball to the front half of the court. Of course she landed the shot perfectly, but Simon's glasses caught the sun wrong and he was blinded. The ball only narrowly missed hitting him in the face.

Clary declared that she wasn't playing anymore, she was tired of losing and especially tired of losing to Jace. From what Magnus could tell, a lot of their relationship was based on competition.

He was startled out of his thoughts when Alec dropped himself onto the end of the sun lounger, knocking Magnus' feet out of the way. Magnus wrinkled his nose in disgust as Alec brushed the sand that was clinging to his chest, how Magnus wanted to be sand in that moment, to fall over Magnus' feet.

"Do that somewhere else!" Magnus used one of his feet to nudge Alec's side, "You're blocking my sun"

Alec snorted but moved anyway. He dragged a spare lounger closer and settled onto his front, his head pillowed on his arms and turned to admire Magnus' profile as he settled back to soak the sun's rays.

"Where is everyone?" Alec asked through a yawn. They had spent most of the day at the beach and he was still jet lagged from their flight the night before.

"Cat and Malcolm are finally going on a date" Magnus smiled, "as for the others, I think Ragnor said something about getting Raphael to do something with him today. They aren't having trouble exactly, but they're both too damn stubborn for their own good. Katherine is with your parents, going over some of the press that we'll have to do"

Alec nodded. He found it oddly charming that Magnus was so invested in his friend's happiness that he knew what they were doing.

"And you get stuck with us?"

"Well, 'stuck with' implies that I don't want to be here. I do rather enjoy the view" Magnus rolled his head to the side so he could wiggle his eyebrows at Alec, which was comical because they barely poked out above his overly large sunglasses.

"I knew it!" Alec laughed.

Magnus sat up then, stretching his arms out above his head and smirking as he noticed Alec staring at his abs, "So I'm pretty sure there's an out of order changing station we could break into at the top of the beach"

"And by pretty sure you mean positive right?" Alec sat up himself, his gaze already lustful.

"Do you even have to ask?" Magnus stood and offered his hand out to Alec.

Alec looked out to the sea where his friends were engaged in a fierce battle of chicken. It seemed like Clary and Isabelle had convinced the boys to let them be on a team together, so Simon was balanced precariously on Jace's solders as he tried to wrestle Clary from Izzy's.

"Come on, before they notice that we're gone. I'll never hear the end of it" Magnus laughed and tugged Alec away from their seats, practically running to the changing station.

They weren't back before the others. Alec didn't hear the end of it.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Woah another new chapter and so soon after the last one. I can explain. The majority of this chapter has been written for a while so it was pretty easy to finish it off after I posted the last chapter. Let me know what you think of it because I live in a constant state of 'meh' about this fic.**

"Why do you never stay the night?" Magnus asked Alec as he left after sex once more. They were in Lisbon, weeks had passed since they had first started having casual sex and Magnus had started to get annoyed by Alec's predictability. If it weren't for the fun they had during the day, Magnus would have been convinced that Alec was only using him for his body.

"We aren't dating" Alec said it so simply and it was a blow to Magnus' heart. They weren't dating, but it didn't mean that Magnus didn't want to be.

"Oh alright. Goodnight then" Alec's eyes narrowed for a second but he left without question and Magnus hated him for it. There was a rather large part of him that was wishing for Alec to come running back into the room to ask Magnus out on a real date. He let that part go pretty quickly when he realised Alec wasn't coming back.

He lay awake for most of the night, hugging the pillow that Alec had laid on while Magnus was riding him. He hated himself for acting like such a love sick teenager, but he couldn't help it. Despite being almost completely closed off to him, there was something about Alec that made Magnus want to spend all of his time with him.

"I have to stop this" Magnus groaned to himself when he noticed that the sun had risen and was peeking through the curtain, and he had spent the entire night thinking about Alec. He was beginning to acknowledge that he had a problem. Catarina would slap some sense into him.

Throwing on one of the few jackets he had brought on tour with him, he headed out of his room and down the corridor to Catarina's room. It was too early for anyone to be up really so he wasn't worried about anyone seeing him in neon pink pyjamas.

Malcolm opened the door.

"Well howdy, looks like you two had more fun than me last night" Magnus laughed at the blush on Malcolm's face and at Cat who was peeking from the bedroom, only a sheet wrapped around her, "Sorry for interrupting"

He turned to walk back to his own room but Malcolm grabbed onto his arm and hauled him into the room. Magnus shook him off and perched himself on the edge of the unmade bed. Cat stood directly in front of him, her mother face on, as Magnus liked to call it.

"What's wrong? You look terrible" She eventually sat next to him, the sheet slipping dangerously low as she did so, realising that Magnus wasn't going to be the one to start this conversation. Malcolm had wisely departed.

"I think I'm falling in love" Magnus whispered sadly. He turned his beautiful brown eyes to bore into hers and she was suddenly struck with the fierce need to hug Magnus. So she did. He let her, which was surprising because when Magnus hugged people it was to greet them, or to convey his happiness, never to lean on someone for support. It broke Cat's heart to see him like that.

"What do you need me to do?"

"Just make sure I don't do anything stupid"

"Honey, I've never succeeded at that before" Cat smiled when Magnus laughed at that. She would try her hardest though.

^.^.^.^.^

Cat succeed keeping Magnus on the straight and narrow for about three days. Magnus forgave her, he wasn't one to be controlled.

"Do you want a drink!?" Magnus shouted over the loud music to Alec, who watched the other man cautiously; it was obvious that he had been drinking quiet heavily, but it was the furious swaying of his body that worried him the most.

"I'll take this one, I think" Alec gently removed the glass from Magnus' hand and took a sip in show of actually having a drink. He struggled to not spit it straight back out.

"What the fuck is in that?" the back of his throat was burning now, in addition to the pounding headache he had because of the detestable music of the party. At this point he just wanted to go to bed.

"I don't know! The pretty girl at the bar made it for me" Magnus giggled, his whole body teetering as if he were going to fall. Alec lifted his hands to catch him if he did as Magnus steadied himself.

"She said it was real special. Whisky mainly" Magnus did a horrible southern American accent that wasn't warranted, snatched his glass back and made to down it, but only getting half way through, which was still quite the feat.

"Where's Katherine? Raphael? Cat?" Alec had placed his hands on Magnus' shoulders in the hopes of making clear eye contact with him.

"I lost them" Magnus looked like he was going to cry, that last drink must have made him more emotional than usual. Alec didn't panic though, or not much at least, Clary liked to cry when she was drunk, he had experience dealing with this.

Alec kept his hands on Magnus' shoulders in hopes of keeping him still. His gaze raked over the swell of bodies, attempting to find Jace. When they finally locked eyes – Jace still grinding on Clary, and suddenly laughing at the disgusted curl of Alec's lip – Alec silently communicated that he was 'getting outta there'

Jace winked and sent him a thumbs up. Alec rolled his eyes because maybe one day, Jace would get his mind out the gutter, and turned his attention back to Magnus, who had finished his drink and left his glass balanced precariously on one of the tables.

"We're leaving" Alec told him as he pushed the glass further into the table, broken glass was the last thing they needed to be dealing with right now.

"Alec" Magnus patted his cheeks and wrapped his arms around Alec's neck, head falling to rest on his chest, "You're so kind. So nice. I like you"

Alec patted Magnus on the back and attempted to pull his arms off him, but to no avail. Magnus was just not letting go.

"Carry me?" Magnus mumbled, eyelids drooping. Alec glared down at him. Why was it that he always had to deal with the cuddlers?

"I'm not carrying you Magnus, get off" Alec knew he sounded a lot angrier than what the situation demanded, but Magnus needed to let go of him.

Magnus pulled away sadly, bottom lip thrust out, and if Magnus weren't so drunk Alec would have taken the opportunity to bite it as he so loved to do.

Alec didn't bother to say anything as he pushed his way through the crowd, knowing Magnus was following. He didn't bother to yank his arm free when Magnus latched onto it either. Luckily there was a taxi ready and waiting for them outside. The struggle came with getting Magnus – who seemed to have no control what so ever over his limbs at this point – into said taxi.

After apologising probably once too many times to the driver for Magnus talking her ear off about something Alec wasn't really listening to, they stumbled into the hotel. Alec propped Magnus up against one of the walls of the elevator so he could catch a short, but much needed break.

"Where's your key?" Alec asked him, hitting the button for their floor. It was a small miracle that they were both on the same floor and he wouldn't have to do much once Magnus was safely tucked away in bed.

"Katherine has it" Magnus looked spacey, but also a little bit sick, maybe from the motion of the elevator.

Alec had to fight himself to not bash his head against the wall because of course Magnus wouldn't have his key with him. Of course he wouldn't think to mention it until after the fact. He heaved a deep sigh and hauled Magnus bodily out of the elevator when it finally came to a stop at their floor.

"I really love sex with you, Alec" Magnus told him in all seriousness as he stumbled over his own feet when Alec let him go to walk on his own. Alec rolled his eyes and placed and arm around Magnus' waist to lead to his room.

"I don't like it when you leave though" Alec pretended not to hear that confession, Magnus was very drunk and probably didn't know what he was saying; it was very likely that it wasn't true.

Alec managed to fish his key out of his pocket and get the door open without having to let go of Magnus, which was quite the feat because Magnus was starting to become dead weight. He let Magnus collapse onto the armchair in the room then went to retrieve the spare blanket from the bottom of the wardrobe.

When he returned with said blanket, Magnus had somehow managed to get himself out of all his clothes except his underwear, but was huddled on the floor rather than the chair. He tossed the blanket so it landed next to Magnus' head.

"I would advise you sleep on that chair, it's likely more comfortable than the floor" He received a series of unintelligible murmurs from Magnus as a reply.

Alec had been in bed for exactly three minutes when he felt the covers begin to shift. In his rational mind he knew it was probably nothing, but his body tensed ready to throw a punch if he needed to.

He didn't need to.

"Magnus? What are you doing?" Alec grumbled.

"Sleeping with you, silly. This bed is big enough for two of us" Magnus' words were still coming out slurred.

Alec sighed. There was no point fighting it when Magnus was this drunk, "just stay on your side"

Magnus hummed happily and snuggled further into the warmth.

When he woke the next morning, the first thing Magnus noticed was that his head really fucking hurt. The second thing he noticed was that his face was pressed against a hard chest and there was an arm curled over his waist.

He didn't remember going home with anyone. The last thing he remembered was getting a drink with 'a little extra something' from the girl behind the bar, the extra shot of whatever she had put in there had certainly not done him any favours. He chanced a glance up at the man he was trapped by.

Alec.

He laughed at himself, trying not to shake too much in fear of waking Alec. Of course he would finally get to actually sleep in the same bed as the man he was crushing on and he didn't remember any of it. But he wasn't missing his chance, he had been waiting for this moment for long enough so he steadied his breathing, content to lie there thinking until Alec woke and pushed him away.

Alec didn't do that when he woke the first time. All he did was whisper a tiny 'fuck' into Magnus' hair before dropping a kiss there and falling back to sleep. Magnus was sure he had blown his cover when he almost started hyperventilating, but Alec was obviously still too sleep addled to notice.

Eventually Magnus drifted off back to sleep and when he woke next Alec was gone and the sheets were cold. He was starting to lose his mind over Alec and he didn't know what to do. There weren't many people that he could talk to about Alec. His band barely knew him, and he barely knew the other Lightwoods but Isabelle always seemed to be the one to badger Alec about his relationship so she was his only option.

He quickly made his excuses to Alec and convinced Isabelle to meet him for coffee. She looked at him expectantly, not saying a word, just looking, the entire time they were there until Magnus broke down.

He skirted around the topic, telling her everything without telling her _everything_. He told her what he thought of Alec and how he thought Alec felt but also about how waking up next to him forced his perspective to change.

She replied, "Ask him about the tattoo on the crease of his right arm. You'll know how he feels by what he tells you"

Then she left, leaving Magnus to work out what she meant with that cryptic answer and sill none the wiser about how he should proceed going forward with Alec. He was determined to figure it out one way or another.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Honestly this was supposed to come out on Wednesday but Malec got me fucked up and I couldn't finish one scene, but tis done now and I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think?**

"I think I'm falling in love" Alec muttered, staring angrily into his tea and ignoring the shocked gasps from his friends.

They were all cramped into a hotel room bathroom again, talking about the tour thus far when Alec finally let go of what he had been holding in for so long.

"Why do you sound so mad about it mate?" Jace asked, a rare sign of concern on his face, "falling in love is one of the best things that could happen to you" He reached over the hold Clary's hand, pressing a tiny kiss to her knuckles. She rolled her eyes at him but there was no hiding her bright smile.

"Because I don't do relationships" Alec replied, this time louder but still as angry.

"Alec. If this is about George-" Izzy stopped herself as soon as Alec turned his glare to her.

"Don't" His voice came out barely above a whisper but it was still venomous.

"No you don't Alec" Clary said. She mostly stayed out of Alec's personal life, he was a private person and she wanted to respect that, "You have to stop going back to that as an excuse to not let yourself feel anything. It hurts. We know. We know we can never understand but we can't even begin to if you don't let us. So talk to us Alec. Please."

Alec turned back to his tea, "I really like him and I don't want to mess it up because of my shit"

"Alec" Jace whispered. He shuffled around as much as he could in the limited space of the floor and placed both of his hands over Alec's on the warm mug, and rested his chin on the edge of the bath, "You won't mess it up. Not completely. You'll both make mistakes but it won't matter because you care for each other and you'll find ways to get better and make it work. Whatever happens though, whatever you decide, us four, we'll _always_ be here for you. No matter what."

Alec laughed and leant his forehead against the crown of Jace's head. He was so thankful that his friends understood what he was thinking, he barely did himself and the jury was still way out on what he was feeling. He made eye contact with Izzy, praying for her to accept the apology in his eyes. She nodded ever so slightly and he could breathe easier.

"So what are you gonna do?" Simon asked eventually, the stifling air of their tentative happiness too much for him to handle.

"I don't know" Alec leant back, Jace letting go of him, and let his head fall back against the bathroom tiles, "I guess I'm going to try to be better. Whatever that means"

The other four shared a look. That was either going to be Alec's best plan or his worst plan, and they were fairly confident that it wasn't going to be good. But they didn't say anything because Alec needed to work out whatever he was dealing with himself, no matter how much they wanted to help him.

^.^.^.^.^

After what Magnus liked to call the 'sleeping incident' something changed about Alec. He was still as enigmatic as ever, but he stayed longer after sex. It wasn't all night but he didn't leave right away, and Magnus was happy enough living on scraps being thrown his way for the time being.

They were amongst a group of fans when Magnus noticed the next change in him.

Alec throughout the whole tour had not been one for fan interaction. He was happy enough to stand back and let his friends have the spotlight, but something about Denmark must have prompted the change because he was actively taking part in discussions, was offering to take picture with fans. It was odd but welcome.

"What's gotten into you? Being friendly with people?" Magnus teased, poking Alec in the stomach and trying not to let his hands linger for too long on his abs. The final fans were leaving so he didn't feel terrible about being so openly flirtatious.

"I had a long conversation about some things. Figured I had to start sorting myself out somehow" He shrugged and placed a hand on Magnus' lower back, his fingers dipping into the waist band on Magnus' jeans.

"You're sorted enough for me" Magnus laughed at the blush on Alec's face, "How about we skip the party tonight? Go straight back to the hotel?"

Alec's eyes flitted about over Magnus' head, evidently searching for something. When he found it, or didn't as was maybe the case, he leant down to press his lips firmly to Magnus', his spare hand moving to hold Magnus' face, thumb stroking possessively over his cheek.

"What are we waiting for?" he whispered against his lips. Magnus hummed and began dragging Alec away.

"We're turning in early tonight. I don't know how you'll do it, but try to have fun without us!" He called to their friends as they walked past and out to the taxi bay, they were met with whooping and hollering from said friends as well as a detailed account of what they should do from Jace, which was shortly followed by a yelp and an apology.

They didn't speak on their way back to Magnus' room, the never did before, and despite Alec's change they weren't going to start doing so any time soon. They didn't need to.

It was different this time. The passion, the desperate _need_ for each other, was still there but it was different. Tenderness exuded from their every move.

Alec raised a hand to brush his knuckles over Magnus' jaw, a thumb stroked agonisingly slowly over his bottom lip. Magnus closed his eyes and delicately kissed the pad of said thumb. Alec's breathing hitched.

Then he's moved both hands to the hem of Magnus' shirt, fingers splaying on the hard, warm skin just underneath it. Seconds pass before he moved again, too transfixed by the warm glow of Magnus' brown eyes.

Magnus smiled, a barely there twitch of his lips but it didn't need to be on his mouth to be apparent, his eyes sparkled as they drank in the deep blue pools they were boring into.

"Can I?" Alec breathed. He was asking permission to remove the shirt, somehow all things they had done before were irrelevant, this was their first time.

"Yes" it was short, simple but it meant everything. It opened the flood gates to lust.

Alec swiped the shirt from Magnus' torso so fast that the shock of cool air against his skin was enough to raise goosebumps where Magnus was exposed. Alec didn't give him time to shiver before his warm lips were descending onto the plains of his chest to burn his skin.

"Alec please" Magnus moaned quietly, breathlessly as Alec worried a peaked nipple between his teeth. Alec's chuckle ghosted over his nipple to elicit another moan.

He straightened up and hoisted Magnus into the air by his hips. Magnus' legs settled around Alec's waist and his arms around Alec's neck. Their kiss was languid as Alec walks them over to the bed. Then slowly placed Magnus down between the pillows.

"You are so beautiful" Alec murmured, sounding so in awe of the sight in front of him: Magnus, hair spilling out of its careful hold on the pillows, heaving chest exposed, eyes bright and alive as they stared at him through hooded lids.

Then he shuffled his own way on the bed, removing his shirt, shivering at the shock of early evening air but also at the way Magnus worried his bottom lip between his teeth.

"You're incredible" Alec laid a kiss on Magnus' hip bone, just above the waistband of his jeans. Then another on the opposite side. His hands settled over Magnus' waist, a barely there touch as they traced oval circuits.

"Please Alec" Magnus whispered breathlessly, the thought of Alec so close to his erection removed all the shame of begging, "Please touch me"

"But I am" Alec smirked but he wasn't in the mood to tease, so he slowly pulled the zipper of Magnus' jeans down. He let his knuckles brush lightly over the bulge in his pants, delighting at the breathy whimper.

Alec pulled steadily at Magnus' waist band until his jeans were down to his ankles. He laughed because they forgot to take their shoes off and Magnus joined in.

Once their shoes were off and Magnus' jeans had followed, Alec ran his hands over Magnus' thighs, leaning forward to draw him into a breath stealing kiss.

They broke apart to hold eye contact, trying to communicate everything they were feeling with just one look.

Then Alec slipped a hand into Magnus' underwear and their eye contact was lost to the arching of Magnus' back and his eye lids fluttering shut.

Alec made his way back down Magnus' torso, kissing wherever he could reach, until his breath was falling out in soft puffs against Magnus' clothed cock. He pulled his underwear off in one swift motion and takes to the task of sucking Magnus' cock.

Magnus moaned and whimpered as Alec took him deep into his throat. He twisted his hands in Alec's hair, pulling so he didn't push and Alec moaned to give him new sensations.

Alec took him to the top of his crescendo, sucking through the barrier and until the aftershocks left Magnus' body, and Alec's ministrations were starting to overstimulate.

Alec pulled off and hovered over Magnus, taking in his debauched state, "You're perfect"

Magnus smiled and his cheeks got a rosy glow. He pulled Alec down by the back of his neck to kiss him full on the mouth. They kissed and kissed until they're both panting and wanting, needing more.

"Please Alec" Magnus mumbled against his lips, "need you in me"

Alec grunted and placed two fingers on Magnus' bottom lip. He immediately swallowed them down, licking and sucking until Alec is pulled them out of his mouth glistening wet.

Alec teased Magnus' rim, stroking over it and applying a little bit of pressure but never breaching the tight muscle. Magnus was straining to push against the fingers but the hand that Alec had settled at the base of his throat kept him mostly still.

Then Alec pushed the first finger in and Magnus keened enough for his back to arch into the touch. Alec was slower than he usually was, taking his time to thoroughly work Magnus over.

"Alec, Alec, Alec please I need you" Magnus chanted like his holy mantra.

"Calm down" Alec whispered. He stroked his hand over Magnus' cheek as he withdrew his fingers.

Magnus was left whimpering on the bed as Alec stood to shuck his trousers off, only pausing to pull a packet of lubricant out of his back pocket. Then he was back on the bed hovering over Magnus and lubing his cock.

He slowly pushed into Magnus with shallow thrusts, smirking as Magnus groaned and clawed at his back.

Magnus wrapped his legs around Alec's back as soon as he bottomed out, his fingernails leaving crescent shaped indents in his shoulders. Their foreheads met and they panted into the others mouths, kissing like their last breath depended on it.

"Fuck me Alec" Magnus begged softly.

Alec immediately started moving his hips. They snapped at an unbearable pace that made Magnus sob in pleasure.

"Harder!" Magnus screamed as Alec hit his sweet spot. Alec wasn't in any state of mind to argue, his hips snapped faster.

"Oh fuck Magnus" Alec groaned, his head falling to Magnus' shoulder. Magnus had clenched to give Alec even more of that delicious friction his was craving.

"Alec touch me" Magnus begged. He was sobbing harder, needing some relief.

Alec complied and wrapped a hand around Magnus' neglected leaking cock, tugging furiously in time with his own thrusts.

Magnus sobbed and screamed and tightened his hold on Alec as he was sent over the edge by the stimulation he was receiving. Alec followed him over barely seconds later.

Alec collapsed down to Magnus' side, his legs feeling too shaky to move just yet.

Eventually he had to move because he was starting to feel sticky and Magnus didn't look in any state to do anything at all. He got them cleaned up and into their underwear at least before he collapsed back to the bed.

Magnus reached over him to draw his right arm over his chest so he could investigate the tattoos there.

"What is this one for?" Magnus lightly traced the black cursive Latin, the one that Izzy told him about. This was what happened now that Alec had started staying longer. Magnus would ask about one of his tattoos and Alec would tell him what it meant.

Magnus could only be sure that he was telling the truth about them half of the time. It was the tattoo of the Disney version of Robin Hood on his bicep that made him think that way. Alec had confessed that the cartoon fox was his first crush, Magnus was sure that it couldn't be true. Then again, Alec wasn't the best liar.

"There's a bit of a backstory to it" Alec murmured, his voice suddenly as far off as his eyes. Magnus applied slightly more pressure to the words and Alec was back to him.

"I'm always up for listening to one of your stories"

"His name was George Lovelace" Alec began quietly, the fingers on his left hand delicately tracing Magnus' bicep, "He was one of Simon's friends"

Magnus rolled over to lie on his side, his head pillowed on Alec's left arm and his hand placed against Alec's chest, silently supporting him. He knew that whatever he was saying, it was hard for Alec.

"I was sixteen, he was fifteen when we first met. I wasn't bothered in the slightest about him. You know me, I've never been one for meeting new people" Alec huffed humourlessly "It wasn't until he was literally the only person who would go to a concert with me that we actually started hanging out"

"That's cute" Magnus teased, nuzzling his face into Alec's side. Alec smiled but it wasn't without a barely masked pain.

"The more we hung out the more we found out we had in common. Then one day he kissed me" Alec said, "Right out of the fucking blue and I kissed him right back. I didn't even know I wanted to until that moment"

"It sort of went on in secret for a bit. Obviously Jace, Izzy, Clary and Simon knew but that was it really. I didn't care who knew" Alec took a few deep steadying breaths before starting again, "It was all good until he wanted to come out"

Magnus pressed his hand harder into Alec's chest. He could see where this was going, school was sometimes such a terrible place to be for queer kids.

"He wanted to. So bad. So we just turn up one day, start acting like a couple. Exactly like every fucking straight couple there" his jaw clenched and unclenched a few times "Then some piece of shit decides that he didn't like it. Took it out on Georgie, called him all kinds of names."

"George was alright though, he said he was fine, he could handle being called a faggot" he spat the word like it physically pained him to say it, his eyes alight with a barely restrained fury, "Obviously that wouldn't do, they started beating him up. I took them when I could, I could fight back, I could _win_. Not Georgie, he was too small and meek. He was the fucking sweetest, he would never hurt a fly. He used to pick tired bees up off the pavement to move them to a damn flower."

"You don't have to tell me this if you don't want to, Alec" Magnus whispered, he wasn't sure what Alec was thinking, but he looked volatile.

"No it's okay" Alec paused for a second and smiled at Magnus, "So George takes a couple of beatings, but he tells me he's fine. Tells me that as long as he has me, he'll be okay"

"Then one day I go over to his house. We were going to spend the day listening to The Smiths and smoking weed" Alec laughed, "It all seems so fucking stupid now. Anyway, his mum lets me in. Says he's in his room, probably still asleep and I should wake him up for breakfast"

Magnus gasped. If the story was going the way he thought it was, and Magnus did have a tendency to jump to the worst case scenario, it was going to be horrible. It was no wonder that Alec was so closed off.

"I walk in talking about a new record I picked up, thought he was gonna love it" Alec was surprisingly calm now, like he had no energy left to feel anything, "And there he is on his bedroom floor with his wrists slashed wide open. God there was so much blood. I couldn't move, couldn't scream or cry or anything. Then I hear his mum coming up the stairs and the only thing I can think is 'she can't see this'. So I went out, took her back downstairs to sit with her husband and called the emergency services"

"Their faces, Magnus" he shook his head desperately trying to dislodge the images his mind was creating, "I know I would take that any day over them seeing their sons dead body but it was still hard you know. The last time I saw them was the funeral"

"That must have been hard for you" Magnus whispered.

"I was fucking pissed" Alec laughed and sat up, dropping Magnus back down to the bed, roughly scrubbing his hands through his hair, "I was so fucking angry at him"

"Alec calm down" Magnus tried to pry his hands away from where they were tugging at his hair, his voice as soothing as he could make it.

"No! It's not fair!" Alec jumped from the bed, pacing. He didn't say anything until he had punched the wall with a sickening crack, "He was my first everything! I came out for him, because of him! I got into fist fights every fucking day just so he didn't have to take another beating! And he fucking left me! He said he would be fine if he had me! He always had me! And he fucking left!"

Alec collapsed, his head falling to his hands, wrecked breaths but no tears. He pulled his legs up to make himself as small as possible. Magnus wasn't sure what to do. So he settled for sitting on the floor in front of Alec, just being a presence he needed until he calmed himself down.

"You know what's funny?" Alec asked after a minute, "I didn't love him, not really, but I definitely cared about him. Did he not feel the same?"

"It wasn't you Alec" Magnus pulled his hand away from his face, holding them in his own "It was something that was going on with him. It wasn't your fault"

"I know. Doesn't stop me feeling guilty" Alec muttered. He looked at their joined hands, then up to the tattoo that started this conversation all off, "So that's what this means"

"Luctor et emergo?" Magnus asked, meeting Alec's gaze as it softened.

"Yeah. It means 'I struggle and emerge'" Alec whispered softly, "Proof that I'm worth more than what the dickheads said to get to Georgie"

"Thank you for telling me" Magnus whispered, he dropped one of Alec's hands to place his own on Alec's cheek. Alec's eyes slipped closed, leaning into the touch.

"Magnus' heart ached. This boy who had suffered so much. Who lost someone special to the horror of suicide to then see the body, who coped with anxiety, who closed himself off so completely to the world. Yet he still put himself out in the public eye to help people with the gift of music. Magnus didn't think his heart could be filled with any more love for this boy. He was glad to be proven wrong.

"Can I stay tonight?" Alec whispered, refusing to meet Magnus' eye.

"You never have to ask Alec" Magnus pulled him up and over to the bed. They settled under the covers, hands intertwined and foreheads pressed together. Magnus pressed a final kiss to Alec's brow before he fell asleep.

Magnus stayed awake a while longer, pondering Izzy's words. ' _You'll know how he feels by what he tells you'_ but what did it mean. Did it mean Alec felt the same, or did he simply just trust Magnus to know, did he just need to tell someone.

Magnus sighed as he looked over Alec's sleep calmed expression. He would figure it out the morning.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: I want to thank every single one of you that has stayed with this fic through its sporadic updates and messy plot, I promise you I had much larger intentions for it. However, I no longer feel the desire to write for these versions of the characters that I've come to sort of create – this chapter alone has taken me weeks to write. Therefore, this is going to be the second to last chapter. For any of you that were hoping for more I am sorry and to those of you who like this just the way that it is thank you for being here for the journey. It's time for me to let this go and I hope what I have written for you can is enough.**

 **I will be back in the future with different fics, maybe even a chaptered fic that I'm toying with the idea of, but sadly no more from this one.**

 **I want to make a special mention for the people that have left reviews on one chapter or every one, you are the people that I am finishing this for. I am so so so grateful for each and every one of you.**

 _M: Hey Izzy. Can we meet? Need to talk_

 _I: Sure. Coffee?_

 _M: Of course!_

They agreed to meet at a small café a couple of streets over from their hotel. It was early morning, early enough for only the business savvy to be awake and outside.

"Thanks" Izzy said as she slid into the seat opposite Magnus and curled her hands around the hot mug, shuffling her shoulders as the warmth seeped into her cool skin.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"I asked Alec about the tattoo" he was determined to not beat around the bush. It was something he had been thinking about for days and he didn't want to think on it any longer, especially after the night before.

Izzy sipped her latte and raised her eyebrows expectantly. She sighed when Magnus took too long to respond.

"He told me about George-" Magnus stopped as Izzy started spluttering. He quickly pressed a napkin into her hand and moved her coffee out of her way.

"He told you about George? George Lovelace?" She was in disbelief.

"Yes. Why? What does it mean?"

"Shit"

"Why shit? Isabelle tell me!" Magnus was seconds away from begging.

"He never tells anyone about George" she whispered eventually, studying her hands, their callous skin from playing guitar for so many years a stark contrast to the smooth porcelain of the coffee mug.

"If people ask he normally just tells it doesn't mean anything or the definition if he likes them." Magnus was struck dumb. A smile slowly started to work its way onto his face.

"So? He likes me?" Izzy nodded. It was a sad sort of nod that Magnus wasn't familiar with, he didn't wish to think about for too long for fear he would overthink the matter.

"But enough about that" Izzy waved a hand dismissively. Magnus guessed she could be dismissive about it "did you see the boutique the street over? They had the cutest shoes"

Magnus let her move the conversation on but he wasn't finished with the last one. He let her move on because if they continued with the one before, it would be all Magnus could do to run back to his hotel room to confess his feelings to the man in his bed.

^.^.^.^.

It was a few days before Magnus saw Alec again. He was definitely being avoided. But being on tour together meant being in the same vicinity.

Alec had gone back to way the he was before he had spilled everything to Magnus. It was like they had never even had the conversation. He didn't worry though. He knew Alec and he knew that this was just how Alec was.

They were in Rome. All their friends being in healthy, loving, committed relationships left the two of them to sight-see while they "experienced one of the most romantic cities in the world" as Clary so artistically put it.

"Do you think I could work the gladiator look?" Magnus said, posing dramatically over a railing in the Colosseum long enough for Alec to snap a picture. He kicked a leg out as he leant further over the metal. They were near the top and the sheer drop under his head was enough to make Magnus feel slightly woozy so he was quick to pull himself back upright after hearing the camera shutter again.

Alec scoffed at him, "I think you'd be more suited to the aristocratic lifestyle"

"That's true" Magnus hummed and wound a hand around Alec bicep to pull him into walking, instead of him stood fiddling the camera, "You on the other hand. Very gladiator"

"Thanks?"

"I like the gladiators. Russell Crowe in Gladiator? Kit Harrington in the sham that was Pompeii? It'd suit you" Magnus reeled off more of the names like he had thought a lot about it, which he probably had, while Alec hummed in agreement.

They walked along the walkway in a relative silence, just pausing long enough to take pictures of the view or of Magnus dramatically blocking the view. Alec couldn't help the thought that he could get used to it, being with Magnus like this.

Alec had to catch Magnus from where he could have fallen over the side of the barrier when a scream carried over the tops of heads to them. His grip was tight on Magnus' upper arms and he was poised to fight if the need arose.

"Magnus! Magnus Bane!"

Magnus looked around, puzzled at his name being called. A hand and some hair flopped into view over a small crowd of heads, then a small boy, easily half the size of Alec was stood rapt to attention in from of them.

"Hi! I'm a big fan! Can I get a picture?" The boy was vibrating and the group he was with were giggling among themselves, pushing each other and pointing at Magnus over hushed whispers.

"I'm sure I can do that" Magnus smiled brightly and patted Alec on the forearm so he would let go of the bruising grip he had on Magnus' upper arms.

"Do your friends want one as well?" The group started giggling again. Magnus laughed, "I suppose we'll figure that out"

Alec stood some ways off from the group, watching Magnus take pictures and silly selfies. The group didn't approach him until one girl came to stand next to him, quietly asking "are you two dating?"

"Nope"

"But you'd like to be?" Alec thought about it for a second, glancing at the girl who, despite her age, looked at him knowingly.

He sighed, "Yeah I guess I would"

"I'm sure you'll figure something out" She replied, following after her friends that were slowly dragging each other away from Magnus.

Alec thought about it for the rest of the day, figuring something out. He wanted to date Magnus, of course he did, but he also didn't want to mess up the friendship they had by throwing his feelings into the mix. Sex was simple, simple enough that they knew where their boundaries were.

Magnus had walked him to his room at the end of their day together. As his door swung open and he turned to face Magnus, Alec felt a stinging pang in his chest that clearly meant he didn't want Magnus to leave so soon, now that he was starting to let himself open up, he found that the time he spent with Magnus was never enough, he could never get enough of his smiles or laughs.

"Thanks for coming with me today" Magnus said, almost shyly as his fingertips rubbed together, something that Alec had come to associate with him being nervous. "I had a lot of fun"

Alec felt his heart jump into overtime. Magnus was leaving and he didn't know what to say to make him stay. So he didn't say anything, just acted.

His lips went crashing down on Magnus' like a tidal wave. Magnus clutched at the hair at the nape of Alec's neck. The kiss was tender and unlike any other they had shared. The kiss was Alec trying to say everything he felt without words. He had changed since he had revealed himself to Magnus, he was something more in tune with his own feelings. And for that he was thankful.

Magnus broke away first with a quiet squeak, bring one hand to touch his fingertips to his lips. He looked up at Alec, eyes shining, and whispered "I love you"

Alec's breath caught in his throat and the world fell from under him. Magnus looked hopeful, pressing his hands against Alec's chest where he had unknowingly taken a step closer. The air around them was electric. Alec didn't say anything.

"Alec" Magnus breathed. Alec was close, too close to keep him away, yet also too far. The small space between them felt like miles.

"Say the word Magnus" Alec looked wicked, the confession seemingly out of his mind, he knew what he was doing. He knew exactly how he was affecting Magnus., "Say the word and I'll throw you on that bed and not let you leave until morning"

Alec moved closer, so close that he was bent over Magnus, their breath mixing in the air between them. Magnus wanted to say no, wanted to push Alec away and never sleep with him again. But he'd never been so turned on, never needed Alec's touch so badly.

"Please" he breathed but he was the one to make the first move, throwing his arms around Alec's neck to pull him closer.

Alec didn't even seem phased, like he had expected Magnus' resolve to break like one expects the earth to revolve around the sun, if Magnus was honest with himself he was expecting it too. His hands flew to Magnus' bum and his body pressed him against the wall behind him.

"Please. Please. Please" Magnus chanted against Alec's lips. Alec let out n almost inhuman growl, lifting Magnus in the air so his legs could settle around his waist.

Alec stumbled towards the bed, struggling to move, keep Magnus up keep kissing him. He barely managed it. When he laid Magnus down on the bed it was with such gentleness that it left Magnus keening, silently begging for those hands to lay claim to him once more. He wanted the hot, needy sex, the desperation but it was these moments of tenderness that forced Magnus to fall in love with Alec.

"Too many clothes" Alec mumbled, his voice marred with anticipation and tugging at the ridiculous shirt Magnus was wearing. Magnus breathed a laugh, easily finding the right button to reveal his chest. Alec had already discarded his shirt, the swirling patterns, words and pictures proudly on show for Magnus to see.

While Magnus was left dazedly admiring Alec's torso, Alec made quick work of both their jeans; Magnus' taking a fraction longer due to how tight they were.

"You have no idea what you do to me" Alec whispered to himself, Magnus heard thought, causing a small blush to fill his cheeks like no one else ever could before.

Alec slowly crawled over Magnus, kissing here and there, wherever he could lay his lips but never where Magnus wanted them. One of his hands settled in the dip of Magnus' neck, the other lay possessively cupping Magnus' clothed cock.

"What do you want Magnus?" Alec had moved to make a trail of open mouthed kisses that mapped out every rise and dip in Magnus' sweat sheened chest. Magnus could barely think as his teeth grazed over a pebbled nipple.

"Fuck me" Later he would think on how embarrassing it was, not it was all he could do to get the words out in a whimper.

Alec moved the hand on his neck to next to his head, using the new position to position himself slightly raised above Magnus. His other hand began slowly massaging the hot flesh beneath it. He smirked.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you" Magnus had never wanted to punch someone in the middle of foreplay before.

"I want you to fuck me" Magnus surprised even himself with how harsh and demanding his voice came out. It quickly turned to a whimpered "please" when Alec applied slightly more pressure to his cock.

Alec's smirk grew wider as his lips decended to clash with Magnus'. He ripped his underwear off and started pumping his cock with rough strokes to Magnus was squirming underneath him.

"Alec! Please!" Magnus gasped. Alec moved to suck an angry bruise into the side of Magnus' neck where the skin was stretched taught because of how far Magnus had thrown his neck back.

"Lube" Alec reluctantly pulled himself off Magnus then moved to his suitcase, grumbling as he shifted through everything to find the almost empty bottle. He tossed it on the bed and removed his underwear in one fluid motion.

"How many do you want?" Alec teased, gently fingering his rapidly hardening cock as he settled between Magnus' legs, "Shall I stretch you wide and watch you fuck yourself on my fingers? Or shall I leave you tight and open you up with my dick?"

Magnus scoffed breathlessly, "whatever you want. Just do something"

Alec smiled and snatched up the bottle of lube, coating two fingers and began working on stretching Magnus' hole. He went slowly with the first finger, making sure to serach for the spot that woukd distract from the slight uncomfortableness.

Magnus wanted more, needed more. He loved Alec for caring just enough to think of his pain but nore when he knew how Magnus felt he needed him to stop.

"Alec! Please just fuck me!" Magnus screamed, no doubt the rest of the floor knowing what was going on behind the closed door, once Alec had two fingers deep in him and stroking his prostate.

"I will"

He removed his fingers, Magnus chasing after them, to lube up his cock in long strokes. Magnus spread wider, silently begging for Alec to hurry up. For what it was worth, Alec sped up his motions and swiftly pulled Magnus' legs up to settle around his shoulders.

"What do you want Magnus?" Alec whispered, "I need you to tell me what you want"

"Fuck me" He sobbed, the teasing too much, "Please just fuck me!"

Alec lined himself up and pressed forward until he was bottomed out, and they were both breathing heavily. He waited until Magnus' legs had stopped shaking before he bagm mercislessly thrusting, Magnus' moans spurring him on.

Alec soon began fisting Magnus' cock, his hand falling easily into time with his thrusts. Magnus couldn't make any noise after that, the stimulation too much to do anything but let his mouth fall open into a silent 'o'.

"You look so good on my cock Magnus" Alec growled, his eyes slipping closed in something akin to pure bliss. Magnus could only sob in response, he could feel his heart break with those words.

"You gonna cum for me Magnus?" Alec's eyes were open a blazing again, and Magnus was cumming. The orgasm spread through his body like potassium in water, a giant spark that sped around like wildfire then fizzling out without so much as a warning.

He sobbed and screamed as his oversensitive flesh was still stimulated by Alec's rush to the finish line. He even felt Alec's orgasm through the trembling of his body transferring into his.

Eventually Alec pulled out and fell beside Magnus on the bed, chest rising and falling rapidly from the exhaustions. Magnus had curled up into himself, his back to Alec once they had finished. He barely moved as Alec cleaned them both up with a damp rag, just staring at the off white walls of the hotel room.

He felt stupid. He felt used and dirty. Just minutes ago his had bared his soul to Alec to confess his love for him and yet to Alec he was nothing, only something to be fucked. He felt so ashamed.

"Magnus-" Alec tried to speak, placing a hand on his bare shoulder.

It broke the dam Magnus had built. Tears sprang to his eyes and he sprang into action. He dashed about the room, hastily pulling his clothes on as he went. Alec just sat looking defeated.

Magnus managed not to let the tears begin to flow until he was out of the room and in his own. He held a pillow close to his chest as he cried because even though Alec didn't care about him, he was still in love with the other man. He hated it.

 **A/N: So have I mentioned how much I love an unreliable narrator? Have I also mentioned how much I just want Alec to learn how to talk about his feelings? He's getting there, albeit slowly, but he's getting there.**

 **Just one more chapter, I hope you stick with me until the happy ending I'm going to promise you. I can promise you a happy ending because that's the only part of the next chapter that I have written**

 **Once again thank you so much to everyone that reads this. Oh and please leave a comment?**


End file.
